Ghee Mysore pak is besan cooked in a sugar syrup while hot ghee is added a little at a time, then poured into a tray to set. Less ghee gives a harder, porous sweet; more ghee gives the soft, melt-in-the-mouth style. The syrup stage and the ghee ratio are the two things to get right.
At a glance
- Wikipedia's entry on the sweet says it is made mainly from gram flour (besan), sugar and ghee, and that steam escaping from the syrup is what makes it porous.
- USDA FoodData Central lists ghee at 900 kcal per 100 g, and both granulated sugar and chickpea flour at 387 kcal per 100 g.
- On those figures, our soft batch (100 g besan, 200 g sugar, 200 g ghee) comes to 2,961 kcal, or about 148 kcal a piece over 20 pieces.
- ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines define more than 25 g of sugar a day as high, and say to limit ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day.
- The NHS says to hold a burn or scald under cool running water for 20 minutes, and never to put creams, oils or butter on it.
Where does Mysore pak come from?
From the royal kitchens of Mysore, as the story is usually told. The News Minute reports that Kakasura Madappa, a cook with the royal family, was asked to make a sweet that would be named after the kingdom. Treat this as a story: the published accounts disagree on the details, including which Maharaja it was.
The News Minute account says pak comes from nalapaka, the person who makes the paka, or sugar syrup, and describes two main varieties: one soft and mushy, the other crumbly, porous blocks. Wikipedia places the sweet in the reign of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV; Outlook Traveller names Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar.
Why does the sugar syrup stage matter so much?
Because the syrup sets the final texture. Wikipedia's entry says the syrup is cooked to a precise consistency, traditionally called paaka, ranging from thread to soft-ball stage, and that this stage influences how fudgy or crunchy the sweet ends up. Getting the syrup right is the main skill.
Cool a drop of syrup on a spoon for a few seconds and pull it between finger and thumb. If it forms a single thread before breaking, it has reached one-string consistency, our target for both styles. Test early and often. Never touch syrup straight from the pan.
Should you roast the besan first?
It is a choice, not a rule. Wikipedia describes roasted gram flour going into the syrup, but you can also add sifted raw besan and let it cook in the syrup and ghee. We roast it lightly in a teaspoon of the measured ghee, stirring until it smells toasty but has not darkened, then cool and sift it.
Either way, sift it, add it to the syrup gradually and stir until no dry flour is left. Wikipedia's entry says constant stirring is needed to keep the mixture smooth and free of lumps.
Why is hot ghee added in stages?
So that each addition is taken up before the next, and so the mixture keeps cooking and frothing. Wikipedia's entry explains that moisture from the syrup escapes as steam through the greased gram flour, which makes the sweet porous, and that excess ghee may fill those pores and make it dense.
Keep the melted ghee on a low flame so each ladleful goes in hot, and stir until it is absorbed before adding the next. When the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan, pour it into the tray. If your ghee has set into grains, simply melt it; our article on what makes ghee danedar explains why ghee sets that way.
How much ghee goes into soft versus hard Mysore pak?
In our starting quantities, twice as much for the soft style. Wikipedia says the classic version uses generous amounts of ghee for a melt-in-the-mouth consistency, and that the sweet is hard and porous when made with a combination of ghee and oil. The quantities below are our starting points, not tested standards.
Both batches use 100 g of besan and 200 g of sugar dissolved in about 100 ml of water, and are cut into 20 pieces. Calories use USDA FoodData Central: 900 kcal per 100 g for ghee and 387 kcal per 100 g for both granulated sugar and chickpea flour, or 9 kcal and 3.87 kcal per gram. USDA weighs a cup of chickpea flour at 92 g and a cup of sugar at 200 g; for ghee, see our ghee spoon measures in grams.
| Per batch | Soft (melt-in-the-mouth) | Hard (porous) |
|---|---|---|
| Besan | 100 g: 100 × 3.87 = 387 kcal | 100 g: 100 × 3.87 = 387 kcal |
| Sugar | 200 g: 200 × 3.87 = 774 kcal | 200 g: 200 × 3.87 = 774 kcal |
| Ghee | 200 g: 200 × 9 = 1,800 kcal | 100 g: 100 × 9 = 900 kcal |
| Batch total, if all the ghee stays in | 387 + 774 + 1,800 = 2,961 kcal | 387 + 774 + 900 = 2,061 kcal |
| Per piece, 20 pieces | 2,961 ÷ 20 = 148.05, about 148 kcal | 2,061 ÷ 20 = 103.05, about 103 kcal |
| Ghee per piece | 200 ÷ 20 = 10 g (2 teaspoons at 5 g) | 100 ÷ 20 = 5 g (1 teaspoon at 5 g) |
| Sugar per piece | 200 ÷ 20 = 10 g | 200 ÷ 20 = 10 g |
If your recipe uses more ghee than our soft batch, every extra 50 g adds 50 × 9 = 450 kcal to the batch, or 450 ÷ 20 = 22.5 kcal a piece.
How much of the ghee does the sweet actually absorb?
There is no fixed figure, so the table assumes all of it. If ghee pools on the tray or seeps out as the sweet sets, that ghee is not in the pieces. To know how much stayed in, pour off what drained, weigh it and subtract it from what went into the pan.
The arithmetic is simple. Say 40 g of ghee drains from the soft batch. That is 40 × 9 = 360 kcal that never reaches a plate, so the batch comes to 2,961 − 360 = 2,601 kcal, and each of 20 pieces to 2,601 ÷ 20 = 130.05, about 130 kcal. The ghee in each piece falls from 10 g to (200 − 40) ÷ 20 = 8 g.
How do you make ghee Mysore pak step by step?
Make a syrup, cook sifted besan in it, add hot ghee a ladleful at a time until the mixture froths and leaves the pan, then pour it into a greased tray and cut it while warm. Quantities are in the table above.
- Prepare. Grease a tray. Sift the besan, roasting it first if you like. Melt the ghee and keep it hot on a low flame.
- Make the syrup. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a heavy pan, then boil to one-string consistency.
- Add the besan. Lower the heat and stir it in a little at a time.
- Add the hot ghee in stages. One ladleful at a time, each absorbed before the next.
- Watch for the froth. The mixture bubbles as steam escapes and begins to leave the sides of the pan.
- Pour at once. Tip it into the greased tray and level it gently.
- Cut while warm. Mark 20 pieces, cut through once it has firmed, and lift them out when cool.
How do you stay safe with hot syrup and hot ghee?
Treat both as burn hazards from start to finish. Keep children away from the stove, and use a heavy pan with a long handle and a long spoon. If syrup or ghee reaches skin, the NHS says to cool the burn under cool running water for 20 minutes.
The NHS page on burns and scalds also says:
- Remove clothing and jewellery near the burn, but leave anything stuck to it.
- Cover it loosely with cling film after cooling, without wrapping it round.
- Do not put creams, oils or butter on a burn or scald, and do not burst blisters.
- Get emergency help for a burn that is very large or deep, or on the face; in India, go to the nearest emergency department.
How does a piece fit the ICMR-NIN guidelines?
As an occasional sweet, not a daily one. ICMR-NIN's 2024 Dietary Guidelines for Indians say to "limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible", and define sugar above 25 g a day as high on a 2,000 kcal diet. One soft piece from our batch carries 10 g of each.
On ICMR-NIN's 5 g teaspoon, the soft piece's ghee is 10 ÷ 5 = 2 teaspoons, the top of that range; the hard piece's is one. The 10 g of sugar in either piece is 10 ÷ 25 = 40 per cent of the 25 g the guidelines call high. USDA lists 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g of ghee, so the soft piece's ghee carries 10 × 0.6 = 6 g, against the guidelines' definition of high as more than 10 g a day of visible saturated fat. If a doctor or dietitian has set limits on your sugar or fat, follow their advice.
If you are buying Mysore pak rather than making it, our guide on how to check a "pure ghee" claim on sweets covers what you can check. For home, Himdhara's A2 bilona ghee is churned from curd on a wooden bilona and clarified over a wood fire.
The short version
Ghee Mysore pak is besan cooked in a sugar syrup, with hot ghee added a ladleful at a time until the mixture froths and leaves the pan. The syrup stage sets the texture, and steam escaping through the mixture makes it porous, while extra ghee can fill the pores and make it dense. On USDA figures, our soft batch is about 148 kcal a piece and our hard batch about 103, each piece with 10 g of sugar. Keep children away from the stove, and cool any burn under running water for 20 minutes.
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.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Chickpea flour (besan). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- Wikipedia contributors (2026). Mysore pak. Wikipedia.
- NHS (2026). Burns and scalds. NHS website.