Even during the Raj coking in the Indian Army was done with desi ghee, there being a large Ghee Depot at Agra for the purpose of preparing and supplying the stuff.Officer's Messes also switched over to ghee after Independence. Mandeep ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arvind Kolhatkar" <akolhatkar@rogers.com> To: <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:13 PM Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Soojee in ghee > Wilfred, > > You say <Couple of Christmases ago I made a return trip to Pakistan to > meet > up with my old school chums and was introduced to 'suji halwa'. Never came > across it whilst growing up out there. > > > I know why. It is cooked on ghee. Halwa is the most popular form in > which > sooji (aka rawa and semolina) is eaten in the subcontinent. The equally > popular South Indian 'upama' is also sooji. > > I have never understood the reason for it but the Brits never took to > using > 'ghee' or clarified butter in their cooking. For them, there was nothing > beyond butter. On the other hand, Indian cooking hardly ever uses butter > as > such. For Indians it is always 'ghee'. Probably the Brits equated eating > ghee with going native...but let me tell you that fresh ghee has an > appetizing flavour and granularness which are totally absent from butter. > > On the subject of ghee, I had stayed in an army mess in Ladakh a couple of > decades ago. I was amazed that ghee was a part of the fare there - by and > large the Indian Army messes still follow the pre-1947 practices, but > apparently an exception was made for ghee! > > Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 11, 2008. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Mandeep, Thanks for removing my misconception. Is it that desi ghee was available to the Jawans before 1947 and entered Officers' Messes after 1947? Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, July 15, 2008.