<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Khoa jalebi</i>, a unique traditional product of Central India

96-102Khoa jalebi is a popular sweet consumed in central parts of India. It is one of the foods consumed during fasting days by Hindus and Muslim community. In order to characterise the typical attributes of this traditional product, khoa jalebi samples were collected from Nagpur, Nasik, Indore, Raipur and Wardha cities and evaluated for sensory, physico-chemical and textural characteristics. The study showed that khoa jalebi resembled traditional maida jalebi but possessed thicker coils heavier in nature. The colour was light brown to dark brown and the texture was soft yet chewy. The number of coils was restricted to a maximum of four and sugar syrup remained embedded within the coils. The composition of the product varied widely the moisture, fat, protein, lactose, sucrose and ash contents being 18.21 – 28.69, 12.33 – 16.77, 2.78 – 6.98, 7.39 – 13.13, 15.20 – 48.07 and 0.60 – 1.29%, respectively. Variations were also observed in ingredients used for the preparation of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">khoa jalebi and the method adopted for manufacture varied from halwai to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">halwai. Hence, there is a need for characterization and process optimization for the preparation of khoa jalebi so that dairy industry can produce this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">khoa based sweet on large scale