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Food & Recipes

Tilkut

A dry winter sweet of pounded sesame and jaggery, made especially for Makar Sankranti. Gaya's tilkut is the most famous.

Men pounding sesame and jaggery to make tilkut
Photo: Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tilkut is a dry sweet made by pounding til, or sesame seeds, with jaggery or sugar. It is made and eaten especially around Makar Sankranti, known locally as Sakraat.

The best tilkut is said to come from Gaya. A sweet called palala, mentioned in Buddhist literature, is thought to refer to this dry sweet.

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