'Rabri': A sweet treat from Mathura that adds a creamy twist to kulfis, malpuas & jalebis

Created in Mathura and perfected in Varanasi, the art of rabdi travelled East and today one village of Bengal survives by making it By Anirban Bora.
I was quietly enjoying my first glass of dry fruit rich rabdi falooda in old Delhi, when Poltu, the tourist from Howrah pointed out. The rabdi in this tastes quite different from what we have in Bengal. It is more of condensed milk than rabri in rabdi falooda, a goodie developed by the Parsis. For the real story of the creation of rabdi, we have to go to Mathura and the land of Krishna. As rabdi travelled to the shores of Benaras, the sweet went to a completely new level altogether.

Both malai and rabdi are made by reducing milk in heat. Many of the Yadavs here were from Bihar and for the first time, classic sweets like malai and rabdi were created at this time. The malai with all it’s goodness appealed to the aristocrats where rabdi in Varanasi became a poor man’s delight-- after a glass of bhang lassi.

Rich creaminess of the clotted cream (Malai) comes from buffalo milk being heated/ simmered but never boiled in a flat bottomed kadai and carefully the layers are kept one on top of the other It’s younger cousin rabdi is cooked in an u-shaped kadai where milk is boiled and condensed. The rabdi in Varanasi is white with limited dry fruits.



From Varanasi as the fame of rabdi spread to Lucknow, Maharashtra and Gujarat variations were created like Basundi, with dry fruits, Khoya and sometimes even saffron The consistency of milk changes everywhere according to availability and types of milk.

The Bengalis were very much connected with Mathura, Vrindavan and Varanasi and we first hear of rabdi in Mangalkabyas (1400) Tales of Sri Chaitanya had reference of Rabdi as Charu Kolkata of my childhood had non-Bengali rabdi sellers selling rabdis on their back and rabdi makers making rabdi in the open.

The Tiwaris and Sharmas taught the Bengali how to fall in love with the sweet There is a whole village in Bengal which makes rabdi As Amitava showed the way one winter morning, I reached there with a few friends. Meanwhile, my friend Amitava Dey told me something which took my sleep away and got me a bus ticket to Kolkata.

A village of roughly 50 families, Rabrigram’s actual name is Anya, Gangpur and it is close to Dankuni, Hoogly, (90 min from Kolkata). A cow (in average) gives 7 litre of milk in a day. Rabris are made here in a 7 litre kadai which ends up producing 2 kg rabdi.

Most of the houses in the village had cowsheds and milk used to get wasted regularly until one villager working in jodubabu’s bazar in Kolkata returned home with the art of rabdi. He started making rabdi at home and kept selling in Kolkata sweet shops. After 30 years, the whole village now makes rabdi.

1. The milk is boiled in slow heat and continuously stirred and fanned in a boat shaped kadai.
2. Soon the cream floats on the top and the expert sweet maker carefully takes it to one side and stick it on the side of the kadai.
3. Sweetners like sugar or date palm jaggery is added while simmering continues and cream layers are collected. When milk is condensed to the highest saturation point, the thickened cream is cut in square shapes with knife and added to milk and the rabdi is ready to consume.

Today rabdi is used innovatively in kulfi, ice creams, chai, sweets even Amul is successfully packaged a decent one. For ages it is eaten with Malpua, Imarti, jilebi and even in many places mixed with lassi.

The other type of rabdi is known as Ghata Rabdi where the thickened cream is mixed with milk using a machine and this creates a mishmash texture to the milk. The Rabdi I had here was brilliant and no wonder many sweet shop of Bengal orders rabdi from here. Big sweet shops still prefer to make their own rabdi though. But for more knowledge on the cousins like Malaiyyo, Nimish, Daulatki chati need to travel and eat more in Varanasi , Lucknow and Mathura. In the meantime watch this space for more.