A ghee jalebi is a fermented maida batter, or an instant curd-and-soda batter, piped in spirals into hot ghee, fried until crisp and dipped for a few seconds in a one-string sugar syrup. Our starting point is 200 g of maida and 100 g of curd for the batter, 300 g of sugar for the syrup, and enough ghee to fry in, kept well below its smoke point.
At a glance
- A 2025 University of Jammu paper describes the traditional batter fermenting naturally for 6 to 8 hours in a warm place, and isolated sixteen lactic acid bacteria from it.
- Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety says to keep deep-frying oil between 150 and 180 °C; a 2024 review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine puts ghee's smoke point at about 250 °C.
- USDA FoodData Central lists ghee at 900 kcal per 100 g, all-purpose flour at 364, granulated sugar at 387 and whole-milk curd at 61.
- On those figures our batch of 20 carries 1,950 kcal in batter and syrup, at most about 98 kcal a jalebi before the fried ghee.
- ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day and call sugar above 25 g a day high; FSSAI says oil used for frying at home goes into a curry within a day or two.
Fermented batter or instant: what does fermentation do?
It sours and lightens the batter, as far as the sources we opened go. A jalebi-specific paper from the University of Jammu says the batter ferments naturally in a covered container for 6 to 8 hours in a warm place, and it isolated sixteen lactic acid bacteria from market batter, one identified as Limosilactobacillus fermentum.
That paper by Habib and colleagues, in the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, describes the traditional batter as wheat flour and black gram with yogurt and clarified butter, deep-fried once fermented and immersed in sugar syrup. It studied the bacteria as probiotics, not what they do in the bowl. The nearest account of what such fermentation does is a 2019 idli batter study in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, which names its two major changes as a fall in pH from acid production and a rise in volume from gas. Idli is not jalebi, so take that as direction only.
The instant version replaces the hours with chemistry: curd supplies the sourness at once, and a quarter teaspoon of baking soda stirred in just before frying supplies the lift. In our kitchen the fermented batter is tangier with a more open shell and the instant one milder; no study we opened compared the two.
Why is lemon juice added to the one-string syrup?
To keep the syrup from turning grainy. A Kansas State University handout on candy science says a little acid such as lemon juice or cream of tartar causes sucrose to break down into fructose and glucose, and that large sucrose crystals have a harder time forming when molecules of those two sugars are around to get in the way.
One string is where we stop: a cooled drop pulled between finger and thumb forms one short thread before it breaks. The syrup stages are in our article on ghee Mysore pak and its syrup stage; a jalebi syrup must stay thin enough to soak into a crisp shell in seconds, so stop at the first thread.
How hot should the ghee be for frying jalebi?
Between 150 and 180 °C, the range Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety gives for deep-frying oil, and nowhere near ghee's smoke point, which a 2024 review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine puts at about 250 °C. If the ghee smokes it is far too hot: take the pan off the heat and let it cool.
The Centre for Food Safety poster adds two habits: lower the setting to 120 to 130 °C when the fryer is idle, meaning a lower flame between batches at home, and change the oil at an unusual colour or odour, smoke or foam. The smoke point is a ceiling, not a target: as our article on ghee's smoke point and when it matters sets out, frying is where a good ghee's aroma is driven off.
How do you make ghee jalebi step by step?
Ferment or mix the batter, boil the syrup to one string with lemon juice, heat the ghee to between 150 and 180 °C, pipe spirals, fry until crisp, dip for seconds and serve warm. The batch below makes about 20 spirals of 8 cm in our kitchen.
- Make the batter. Whisk 200 g of maida with 100 g of curd and about 150 ml of water to a thick batter. Fermented: cover and leave somewhere warm for 6 to 8 hours, the time the Jammu paper describes. Instant: add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda just before piping.
- Make the syrup. Dissolve 300 g of sugar in 150 ml of water, boil to one string, add a teaspoon of lemon juice and a few crushed cardamom pods. Keep it warm.
- Heat the ghee. About 3 cm deep in a wide, flat pan, to 150 to 180 °C on a thermometer.
- Pipe the spirals. From a squeeze bottle or cloth cone, pipe three turns from the outside in and close with a cross-stroke.
- Fry. Three or four at a time, so the ghee does not cool, until crisp and pale gold on both sides.
- Dip. Slide each hot jalebi into the warm syrup, turn once, lift out after a few seconds, drain and serve warm.
- Deal with the ghee. Cool it, strain it, keep it in its own container and use it in a curry within a day or two.
How many calories are in one ghee jalebi?
At most about 98 kcal from the batter and syrup, on USDA FoodData Central figures, with the fried ghee on top, and that cannot be counted without weighing. Our batch uses 200 g of maida, 100 g of curd and 300 g of sugar, and makes about 20.
| Ingredient, one batch of 20 | Our starting point | USDA record, kcal per 100 g | Calories in the batch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maida (all-purpose flour) | 200 g | Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, unenriched: 364 | 200 × 3.64 = 728 kcal |
| Curd | 100 g | Yogurt, plain, whole milk: 61 | 100 × 0.61 = 61 kcal |
| Sugar, in the syrup | 300 g | Sugars, granulated: 387 | 300 × 3.87 = 1,161 kcal |
| Batter and syrup, ceiling | — | — | 728 + 61 + 1,161 = 1,950 kcal; 1,950 ÷ 20 = 97.5, about 98 kcal a jalebi |
| Ghee absorbed in frying | Not known | Butter, Clarified butter (ghee): 900, so 9 kcal a gram | Not counted; weigh before and after |
It is a ceiling because not all the syrup clings, and because the ghee is unknown: no source we opened gives an absorption figure for jalebi, so we do not guess one. To count it, weigh the ghee in and what you strain back. As an illustration only, if 500 g went in and 450 g came back, the difference is 50 × 9 = 450 kcal, or 450 ÷ 20 = 22.5 kcal a jalebi on top of the 98.
Can the ghee be reused after frying jalebi?
Once, in a curry, not for frying again. FSSAI's guidance note on used cooking oil says that at household level oil once used for frying should be filtered and may be used for curry preparation, that it should be consumed in a day or two, and that the same oil should not be used for frying again.
ICMR-NIN's 2024 Dietary Guidelines for Indians say: "At household level, vegetable oil once used for frying, should be filtered and may be used for curry preparation but using the same oil for frying again should be avoided. Also, such oils should be consumed in a day or two." Neither names ghee or exempts it. Our article on whether ghee can be reused after frying goes through the studies that heated ghee.
FSSAI's household procedure is to store used oil separately, never refill the fresh container with it, and discard it, not down the drain, when blue-grey smoke appears, tough foam forms, it turns dark and murky or its consistency changes.
How does a jalebi fit the ICMR-NIN guidelines?
As an occasional sweet. The 2024 guidelines say to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, or avoid it if possible, define sugar above 25 g a day as high on a 2,000 kcal intake, and tell readers to cut down on deep fried foods. One of our jalebis carries up to 15 g of sugar.
That 15 g is 300 ÷ 20, and 15 ÷ 25 = 60 per cent of the daily figure the guidelines call high, before the fried ghee. The guidelines put visible fat at 20 to 50 g a day, or 4 to 10 teaspoons, so their teaspoon is 5 g. USDA lists 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g of ghee, so every 10 g absorbed is 6 g of saturated fat, against the 10 g a day the guidelines call high. If a doctor or dietitian has set your sugar or fat intake, follow their advice rather than our table.
Ours are fried in Himdhara's A2 bilona ghee; any fresh ghee held at 150 to 180 °C will do.
The short version
Ghee jalebi is a maida-and-curd batter, fermented for hours or made instant with a pinch of soda, piped in spirals into ghee held between 150 and 180 °C, fried crisp and dipped for seconds in a one-string syrup with a little lemon juice against crystals. On USDA figures a jalebi from our batch of 20 carries at most about 98 kcal from batter and syrup, plus uncounted ghee. Strain the used ghee into a curry within a day or two.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Habib B., Bangotra R., Sharma R., Bajaj B.K. (2025). Bioprospecting of probiotic lactic acid bacteria from jalebi batter and evaluation of their antidiabetic and antioxidant potential. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology.
- Centre for Food Safety, Hong Kong (2019). Recommendations on the use of deep-frying oil. Centre for Food Safety.
- Kataria D., Singh G. (2024). Health benefits of ghee: Review of Ayurveda and modern science perspectives. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.