How is mishri made? Rock sugar making process step by step

Mishri is made of two things, sugar and water, and the water leaves before the rock does. The method is crystallisation, not cooking: sugar is dissolved, the syrup is boiled until it is dense, and the dissolved sugar is left to re-form into large crystals.

The Dietary Guidelines for Indians class sugars added to foods and drinks during processing and preparation as added sugars, a group it opens with sucrose (table sugar), jaggery and honey; mishri, made from sugar, sits in the same class. In English the finished rock is called rock sugar, which is the same idea stated from the other side. The mishri in English page covers the word and its spellings.

1. Dissolve the sugar. Sugar goes into a pan with water and is heated and stirred until it has dissolved into a clear syrup.
2. Boil to the thread stage. The syrup keeps boiling until a drop pressed between a wet finger and thumb pulls into a single thread. That is the one-thread stage, and the next section explains the test; boiled past it, the syrup darkens.
3. Pour and let it crystallise. The hot syrup is poured into wide, shallow trays, or into vessels strung with clean cotton threads, and then left completely undisturbed in a dry place. Over the following days the sugar slowly grows as crystals on the threads and the walls of the tray.
4. Drain and dry. The syrup that has not crystallised is drained off, and the lumps are dried until they are hard and no longer sticky. Dhaga mishri is the kind grown on a thread: the crystal forms around the cotton thread.

The thread stage is the maker's check on how far the syrup has boiled, and it needs no thermometer. Lift a little syrup on a wetted finger, press it against the thumb and draw the two apart slowly. Early in the boil the syrup just smears; once enough water has gone, a single fine thread forms between finger and thumb and holds for a moment before breaking, and that is the one-thread stage. Cooked further, the syrup passes through thicker threads, and beyond that it darkens.

In this method the one-thread stage is where the boiling stops. A syrup that has not reached the thread is still thin, and may not set into clean crystals; one boiled well past it can give darker lumps instead of glassy ones. The thread, in short, marks where the right share of water has left the syrup.

• Stirring or moving the trays. Crystals grow best where the syrup rests. A stir mid-way can break the growing crystals and leave small, cloudy grains instead of clean lumps.
• Pouring before the thread stage. Syrup that is still thin may stay a sticky mass that does not firm.
• Boiling past the thread. The syrup darkens as it cooks on, and the finished lumps can come out tinted rather than clear.
• Covering the trays. A lid, or a damp room, keeps moisture in, and the crystals may stay soft and sticky instead of drying hard.
• Checking too early. Crystallising takes days, not hours; a batch looked at too soon seems unfinished, and it is better left alone than disturbed.

The whole route from sugar to rock, with what each stage looks like.

Once dry, mishri keeps like any dry sugar: a sealed jar on a cool, dry shelf, away from the moisture that softens lumps. For the uses and the health side of the finished rock, see mishri benefits; the comparison with the sugar it is made from is on mishri vs sugar, and the mishri hub ties the whole cluster together.

What is mishri?

Mishri is rock sugar: sugar that has been dissolved and then re-crystallised into hard, translucent lumps, some grown around a cotton thread. It is sugar, not a fruit or a plant product, and it sweetens as sugar does. The making is traced stage by stage above.

What is misri?

Misri is mishri in its other common spelling, one letter apart; the two names point to the same rock sugar. Which spelling a shop uses changes nothing about the food, its making or its sweetness.

How rock sugar is made?

Exactly the way mishri is made, because rock sugar is mishri's English name. Sugar is dissolved in water and boiled to the one-thread stage, then poured over cotton threads or into trays and left undisturbed while the sugar crystallises into lumps over several days; the leftover syrup is drained off and the lumps are dried. Dhaga mishri is the kind grown on a thread.

What is the difference between mishri and sugar?

Almost none in substance: mishri is made from sugar, so it is sugar in large crystals where table sugar is sugar in fine grains. The difference is shape and making, not kind. Calories and the glycemic index, and where no figure exists for either, are set out on mishri vs sugar.

Does mishri contain sugar?

Yes. Mishri is sugar: it is made by dissolving sugar and letting it crystallise again, so a lump of mishri is a lump of sugar and nothing else. That is why it is counted with the day's added sugar, not with foods that hold only natural sweetness.

Can mishri be used in tea?

Yes. A lump dropped into hot tea sweetens it as it dissolves, only more slowly than fine sugar, because a solid lump has less surface in contact with the liquid; stir, or break the lump small. It counts toward the day's added sugar like any sweetener.