Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Gulab jamun" in English language version.
In another recipe he gives directions for a syrup-soaked fritter many modern Indians would recognize. To make it, the cook is told to curdle warm milk by adding buttermilk, then strain it to remove the liquid. (Nowadays this fresh cheese would be called chhana.) The resulting curds are then mixed with a little rice flour, formed into balls, and fried in ghee. Finally, they are soaked in syrup.
To make it, you form balls out of a dough of fresh cheese curds mixed with rice flour, fry these in ghee, and then soak them in cardamom-scented syrup. I imagine the king feeding the morsels—tender, buttery, and dripping with the perfumed syrup—to his favorite as she lies resplendent on a silk-lined bed. Most of these fritters still exist and in more than one variation.
A fitters of very similar appearance is made in the Middle East under the name Luqmat Al Qadi. It is conceivable that they both developed from an earlier Persian antecedent. Gulab comes from the Persian word for rosewater, while Jamun refers to a local fruit of roughly this size. The two batters are made entirely differently, though, so the only Persian connection may be the common use of rosewater syrup.
The two batters are made entirely differently, though, so the only Persian connection may be the common use of rosewater syrup...Gulab comes from the Persian word for rosewater, while jamun refers to a local fruit of roughly this size."
