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EveryCow

Milk sweets

Kulfi

Reduced, sweetened milk frozen in conical moulds: a dense ice that melts slowly and is cut into thick slices.

Kulfi is milk boiled down until thick, sweetened, flavoured with cardamom, saffron or pistachio, and frozen without churning. Because no air is beaten in, it is firm and dense and melts slowly. It is set in cone-shaped metal moulds or small clay pots and sold from street carts, often sliced and served on a leaf or with falooda noodles.

What goes in

Whole milk: 67%67%Sugar: 13%13%Khoa or malai: 13%13%Cardamom, saffron, pistachio: 7%4parts
  • Whole milk1067%, Reduced by about half.
  • Sugar213%, Sweetens and softens the set.
  • Khoa or malai213%, Added for richness in some versions.
  • Cardamom, saffron, pistachio17%, The usual flavours.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Boil Boil the milk and keep it simmering, scraping the sides, until it has reduced by about half.
  2. Step 2: Cook Add sugar, crumbled khoa and the flavourings and cook a few minutes more.
  3. Step 3: Shape Cool the mixture and pour it into conical moulds or clay pots.
  4. Step 4: Set Freeze the moulds, traditionally in a pot of ice and salt.
  5. Step 5: Serve Unmould, slice and serve on a leaf or with falooda.
  6. Whole milk: 67%67%Sugar: 13%13%Khoa or malai: 13%13%Cardamom, saffron, pistachio: 7%
    Finished Kulfi, by share.

Ice from the hills

Kulfi is usually traced to the kitchens of the Mughal court in the sixteenth century, which had ice brought down from the mountains. Before refrigeration the moulds were packed in earthen pots filled with ice and salt, which freezes the milk below the temperature of plain ice. Street sellers in old Delhi and Lucknow still use that method.

Flavours and serving

Malai kulfi, plain with cardamom, is the classic. Pistachio, saffron, mango, rose and paan are common. In north India kulfi falooda is a cut kulfi served with thin cornflour noodles, rose syrup and basil seeds. Matka kulfi is set and sold in the small clay pot itself. Shops often keep the moulds in a red cloth-lined box.

Where it is used

Street cart treatKulfi faloodaSummer evenings

The breeds behind it

SahiwalPunjab dairy breed of Lahore's hinterland.HarianaCommon cow of the Delhi countryside.GirHigh-fat milk suited to reduction.

More on EveryCow

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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