Nine varieties
Four ingredients.
Four ingredients.
Nowhere to hide.
A papad is dal, salt, a spice and water. There is no sauce to cover a mistake and no cooking to rescue it. It is the hardest simple thing in the shop, and it is what this house is known for.
Why it matters here
Bikaner dries things for a living.
Papad is made everywhere in India. It is made well in a handful of places, and most of those places have one thing in common: dry air and a lot of sun. Bikaner sits in the Thar and gets both for most of the year.
That matters because sun drying cannot be hurried. A papad pushed through a hot room dries from the outside in, traps moisture in the middle and cracks instead of puffing. Left on a roof in Rajasthan it dries evenly, all the way through, and comes off the flame in one piece.
The rest is the dal. Ours is bought whole, cleaned, and ground in small lots rather than bought in as flour. With four ingredients, one bad one is the whole product.
See how a batch is madeWhich one, and why.
The honest differences between nine rounds that look alike in a photograph. Scroll it sideways on a phone.
| Papad | Thickness | Heat | Best cooked | Base |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sada papad | Thin | None, plain | Roast or fry | Moong dal and salt |
| Moong jeera papad | Thin | Mild | Roast or fry | Moong dal, cumin and salt |
| Moong lal mirch papad | Thin | Hot | Fry for heat, roast for balance | Moong dal, red chilli and salt |
| Chana masala papad | Medium | Medium | Roast, fry or cook into a sabji | Chana dal and a ground spice mix |
| Punjabi papad | Thick | Mild to medium | Flame roast | Urad dal, with black pepper through it |
| Javitri papad | Thin | Mild, aromatic | Roast, always | Moong dal, mace and black pepper |
| Appalam | Very thin | None, plain | Fry | Urad dal and salt |
| Pepper papad | Thin | Medium, peppery | Roast or fry | Moong dal and crushed black pepper |
| Masala papad rolls | Rolled tubes | Medium | Fry | Moong dal with a ground spice mix |
All nine.
Each one has its own page, with how it is meant to be cooked.
Technique
Roast or fry.
People are firm about this and both camps are right, just about different papad.
Roast
Straight onto a low open flame with tongs, turning every few seconds. It blisters, keeps its colour and uses no oil at all. This is the way for anything aromatic, so javitri, jeera and pepper.
Fry
Properly hot oil, in and out in seconds, pressed flat once so it does not curl. It comes out lighter and puffier. This is the way for appalam, for rolls, and for chilli when you want the heat forward.
The one mistake either way is heat that is too low. A cool flame dries a papad out and cool oil soaks it. Both give you something leathery instead of brittle.
And when it is not a side.
In Rajasthan a papad is an ingredient as often as it is an accompaniment.
Masala papad
Roast it, pile on raw onion, tomato, chilli and a squeeze of lime. Five minutes, no cooking.
Read it
Dahi papad ki sabji
Papad in a whisked yoghurt gravy. A Marwari answer to an empty fridge.
Read itUse the thick one
Anything that goes into a gravy wants a papad with some body. Punjabi or chana masala hold their shape. A thin moong papad dissolves.
Methi papad ki sabji
Dried fenugreek, papad and a tomato base. Rajasthan in a bowl.
Read itCarrying papad? Carry all nine.
A shop with the whole shelf answers almost any request over the counter. Send us what you already stock and we will tell you what is missing.
Retail pouchesSealed, batch marked, shelf ready
Bulk cartonsFor wholesalers, caterers and kitchens
Samples firstBefore any first order goes out