Anyone with a sweet tooth knows that the much-beloved Mysore Pak broadly comes in two varieties — the “wet”, ghee-infused, fudgy versions that have come to dominate cities today and the powdery, porous blocks that small stores and restaurants sell from glass jars. Fans of Mysore Pak are typically fans of one variety or the other.
Mysore pak was first prepared in the kitchens of the Mysore Palace during the regime of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, by a palace cook named Kakasura Madappa. Madappa made a concoction of gram flour, ghee and sugar. When asked its name, Madappa had nothing in mind, simply called it the 'Mysuru pak'. Pak (or paka, more precisely) in Kannada means sweet. It is traditionally served in weddings and other festivals of southern India, and is very popular in baby showers as well. It is hard and porous when made with less ghee, soft and dense when made with generous amount of ghee. Moisture from the sugar syrup escapes as steam through the greased gram-flour rendering Mysore pak porous. Excess ghee, if any, may fill in such pores rendering it dense.