Jammu: Kalari, the name synonym to the Dogra delicacy of Jammu, has received GI tag in 2023 but it has failed to move out of Jammu and Kashmir as it hasn’t received the promotion and attention which it deserved. Whatever name it has made is because of the individuals who personally promote and send it to different parts of the country as well as outside India.
Kalari is made of milk and the processing starts during the boiling when on the first-day lemon is mixed to separate the water and the remaining milk is kept to dry which later on is cut into pieces of 100 to 150 grams to make a piece of Kalari. The water separated from milk is used as “Mathal”, in place of lemon.
“Kalari is different from cheese and it has the advantage of becoming tastier when it is kept dry for many days. Once it is dried up, the Kalari is fried on a pan by adding salt and onion along with bread to make it ready for consumption,” claimed Sham Lal, a famous Dhaba owner of ‘Sham Kalari’ near Chenani on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
The GI tag for Kalari was for Udhampur district under one district one product programme where the administration has been helping women of different villages under self-help groups to make it a profession. But there is no policy of exporting the same.