Sweets and desserts
Rasgulla
Soft, spongy balls of chhena cooked in light sugar syrup, claimed by both Bengal and Odisha.
Rasgulla, rosogolla in Bengali and rasagola in Odia, is a sweet of small balls of chhena, fresh kneaded cheese curd, cooked in boiling sugar syrup until they swell and turn spongy. They are served cool or at room temperature in their syrup. Rasgulla is one of the most famous sweets of eastern India.
What goes in
- Chhena735%, Kneaded smooth.
- Sugar525%, For the syrup.
- Water630%, Syrup.
- Semolina or flour15%, A little, to bind.
- Cardamom or rose water15%, Optional scent.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Simmer Curdle hot milk with lemon juice, drain in cloth and rinse the curds. Step 2: Rest Hang the chhena until just moist, not dry. Step 3: Knead Knead it with the heel of the hand until completely smooth. Step 4: Knead Roll into small, crack-free balls. Step 5: Simmer Cook in boiling thin syrup, covered, until they swell and float. Step 6: Rest Cool in the syrup before serving. Finished Rasgulla, by share.
Bengal or Odisha
The origin is fiercely disputed. Odisha holds that rasagola has been offered at the Jagannath Temple in Puri for centuries, at the Niladri Bije ritual that ends the Rath Yatra. West Bengal credits the Kolkata confectioner Nobin Chandra Das with creating the spongy rosogolla in 1868. Both states have geographical indication tags: Banglar Rasogolla in 2017 and Odisha Rasagola in 2019.
Chhena
Chhena is made by curdling hot milk with lemon juice or whey and draining the curds in cloth. For rasgulla it must be kneaded by hand until completely smooth, otherwise the balls crack or turn hard. They are dropped into boiling syrup and cooked covered, and they roughly double in size. Odisha's Pahala rasagola is softer and creamier in colour than the white Kolkata style.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
More on EveryCheese
No cheeses here yet. New pages are added every day.
Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.