The importance of goat tallow in the homes of Bihari Muslims

Among the Bihari Muslims of Kolkata, Bakreid is a time for family, celebrations, food and of course, goat tallow. Rendered at home during this time, this tallow is used to make sweet delicacies, and a dehydrated goat meat dish called sukha gosht. Mahwish Paikar gives us a behind the scenes look at the preparation.

Ever craved a crispy, yet mushy maide ka paratha? I do, often. It is the paratha made in my home after Bakreid, and shallow fried in goat tallow. I would wait impatiently for the parathas to be fried before digging into a crisp one.

An unsaid rule in the house was to never to have rotis or paratha while cooking was underway, and the tawa (flat pan) was still on fire. It was only to be had once the flame was put off and some water had been sprinkled onto the tawa. Otherwise, all important events of life, including jobs and marriages, would suddenly come to a stop midway.

Goat tallow is rendered at home soon after Eid-Ul-Azha (colloquially Bakreid). The snowy white and firm tallow, similar to coconut oil, is preserved in big batches to last through the year.

Goat tallow is rendered two ways.

One, exclusively of fats, extracted from around different organs of the sacrificed goat. This creamy tallow is retained for the purpose of frying parathas, pyazoo and pakodas. It is also added to minced meat while making kebabs as it improves the texture and mouthfeel.

A by-product of clear tallow is churri, dehydrated, hard and crisp tendon and other tissues as residues from fat. As children, we used to snack upon the freshly minted hot churris, like chips, sprinkled with black salt and roasted cumin powder. Churris are also preserved for the rainy days, when they can be added to eggplant or pumpkin gravies.

Churri is a by-product of tallow, a dehydrated, crisp tendon and other tissues that are residues from fat.

Goat tallow has quite a high smoke point, making it suitable for high-heat cooking like frying and roasting. It is rubbed into refined flour for making baked sweet delicacies like bakarkhwani or khormi where it imparts a light flakiness. It is used as a substitute for cooking oil in a meat or vegetable dish, imparting a unique and complex flavour profile.

The other way of rendering fat is when the meat along with chunks of raw fat pieces gets cooked in its own juice along with a dash of spices. After the moisture evaporates, the mutton chunks remain drowned in a sea of tallow, hard on the outside and moist, juicy inside. This saffron-hued tallow is infused with an umami flavour.

Occasionally, when we ran out of it, the tallow was bought from the butcher’s shop as well. Ghee was expensive and mostly retained for the men of the house. The tallow or lard, either goat or beef, is an acquired taste. Anything cooked in lard has to be consumed with zestful urgency. Otherwise, the melt-in-the-mouth feel would give way to something heavy, quickly setting inside the mouth.

A distinct dish made during Bakreid is sukha gosht — slightly dehydrated goat meat submerged in a sea of goat tallow.

It has been here with us for generations.

We are Bihari Muslims, originally having migrated from Bihar due to horrific famines and deadly communal riots of 1947. We are now settled in the iconic mini Luckhnow, Metiabruz, a suburb of Kolkata that was made famous by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh after the Britishers annexed his kingdom, deposed and deported him here in 1856. The Nawab settled along the bank of the river Hooghly near a tiny suburb of Calcutta with his most significant army of bawarchis. Being a connoisseur of good food, his culinary influence cannot be ignored in the distinct cuisine of Mughlai dishes of Kolkata.

Sukha gosht is commonly consumed in many Muslim households in the Indo-Gangetic belt and even in south India. It is made amongst the Muslim communities of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh mostly. As a part of acquired cultural experiences, the Muslim Bengalis of Bengal also use this method of meat preservation during Bakreid. Initially it was made in beef tallow, but due to various political impositions on our eating habits and concerns about accessibility and convenience to beef products, most families have shifted to sacrificing only goat and lambs during Eid-ul Azha.

As a little girl, I remember my nani (our matriarch, Zaib un Nisa) making sukha gosht during Bakreid. A single piece of sukha gosht and a few drops of the flavourful orange tallow on a plate of steaming hot rice after coming back from school in the afternoon was my idea of sublime bliss.

This is my mother’s recipe for sukha gosht.

SARWAR YASMIN’S RECIPE FOR SUKHA GOSHT

Ingredients

3 kg mutton cut into medium chunks (preferable marble streaks cut from the shoulder and forelimb areas)
500 gm goat fat, cut into smaller pieces (brisket trimmings or fat from around the kidneys and intestine)
6 tbsp mustard oil
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp black pepper powder
2 tbsp chilli powder
2 tbsp garlic paste
2 tbsp ginger paste

Method

Assemble the goat (meat and fat) in a big aluminum vessel. Add the spices and mustard oil. Mix the contents.
Cover and steam for 10 minutes on high flame and the next 15 minutes on low flame. The meat and fat will release moisture but would not tenderise in the first round. Uncover the lid and let the steam escape and cool.
Repeat the steaming process twice a day for the subsequent three to four day. By now the flavourful fat would have been rendered and submerged the meat chunks completely.
This batch of meat is then kept in a cool and dry place covered by a light muslin cloth for longer periods without the risk of being spoiled.
The sukha gosht can now be had with steamed rice, added to vegetable curries or even added to the savoury Kolkata style Biryani.
The meat is extracted through re-heating and gets polished off in a matter of a few days. The goat tallow is further heated, decanted, carefully separating it from any sediment of meat shreds and preserved in steel boxes. They are often preserved up to the next Bakried.

SARWAR YASMIN’S RECIPE FOR PARATHA

Ingredients

500 gm refined flour
6 tbsp refined oil
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp sugar
220 ml hot boiling water
A pinch of ajwain (carom seeds) or kalo jeere (nigella seeds) (completely optional)

Method

Mix flour, refined oil, salt sugar and only a pinch of ajwain/ kalo jeere (nigella seeds), only if you like their flavour.
Make a trough in the midst of the flour mix creating space for the hot boiling water. When the water starts boiling vigorously, immediately pour into the trough and mix with a ladle as much and as quickly as you can.
Now let it cool before you can start using your hands to make the dough. Boiling hot water denatures proteins, reducing gluten.
After making a dough ball, slather it with some more refined oil. Cover and let it cool for an hour before proceeding to make balls for the parathas.
Roll them out, layer by layer and toss them up the tawa with generous helpings of the tallow or ghee.

Mahwish Paikar is an ardent culinary enthusiast who loves spending time in the kitchen and on food writings but also unintentionally happens to be a Deputy Commissioner of Revenue under GST.

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