Date palm jaggery ✦

Jaggery de palmier dattier

What it is

The shiuli climb the date palms at dusk, cut a strip of bark and hang an earthen pot; the sap runs overnight and has to be boiled at dawn, because by midday it has begun to ferment. It is made only while Bengal's nights stay below about fourteen degrees - November to February, and not a week longer.

In the kitchen

It is semi-liquid and burns quickly - stir it into warm milk or rice pudding off the heat, never into a boiling pot. Cane jaggery is not a substitute; the smoke is the whole flavour.

Goes with

Rice Coconut Cardamom Ghee Date Yogurt

Same species

Date Date paste Date syrup (silan) Deglet Nour date Medjool date

In season alongside

American lobster Black trumpet Calçot Cipollini onion Crapaudine beetroot Duck

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us