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EveryCow

Festival dishes

Sakkarai pongal

Rice and lentils boiled over in a new pot with milk, jaggery and ghee at the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal.

Sakkarai pongal is sweet rice cooked with split moong dal, jaggery, ghee, cardamom and cashews. It is the dish of Thai Pongal, the Tamil harvest festival in mid January. Families cook it outdoors in a new clay or brass pot, and when the milk and rice boil over the rim, everyone shouts Pongalo Pongal, a sign of plenty for the year ahead.

What goes in

Raw rice: 32%32%Split moong dal: 11%11%Jaggery: 21%21%Milk: 21%21%Ghee: 11%11%Cashews, raisins, cardamom: 5%6parts
  • Raw rice632%, New rice from the harvest where possible.
  • Split moong dal211%, Dry-roasted first.
  • Jaggery421%, Melted and strained.
  • Milk421%, Boiled first in the pot.
  • Ghee211%, Generous, stirred through at the end.
  • Cashews, raisins, cardamom15%, Fried in ghee.

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 Set a new pot on the fire and bring milk and water to the boil until it rises over the rim.
  2. Step 2: Cook Add rice and roasted moong dal and cook until very soft.
  3. Step 3: Cook Pour in melted jaggery and stir until thick.
  4. Step 4: Cook Fry cashews and raisins in ghee and stir them in with cardamom and more ghee.
  5. Step 5: Serve Offer the first portion to the sun, then serve on banana leaves, and to the cattle the next day.
  6. Raw rice: 32%32%Split moong dal: 11%11%Jaggery: 21%21%Milk: 21%21%Ghee: 11%11%Cashews, raisins, cardamom: 5%
    Finished Sakkarai pongal, by share.

The boiling over

Pongal means to boil or overflow. On the festival morning, the pot is decorated with turmeric and ginger plants and set on a fire facing the rising sun. Milk is brought to the boil first, then rice and lentils go in, and the moment it spills over is watched for and greeted. The first portion is offered to the Sun god before the family eats.

Mattu Pongal

The day after Thai Pongal is Mattu Pongal, the day of the cattle. Cows and bullocks are bathed, their horns painted and capped, garlands of flowers and bells hung round their necks, and they are fed pongal. In parts of Tamil Nadu the day is also linked to jallikattu, the bull-taming sport, a tradition that has been the subject of court cases and public debate.

Where it is used

Thai Pongal offeringFed to cattle at Mattu PongalTemple prasadam

The breeds behind it

KangayamDraught breed of Kongu Nadu, honoured at Mattu Pongal.UmblacheryDraught breed of the Cauvery delta.BargurHill breed of the Bargur forests near Erode.

Also part of it, and being written: Pulikulam (Small breed of Madurai, kept for jallikattu.).

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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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