I have sweet memories of all food and festivities I had in my growing years in Hyderabad, India.  Be it celebrations or commemorations there is always some food  related to every occasion. One such tradition is making and serving an exclusively delicious oudh smoked milk drink  at this time of the lunar year.   Continuing this tradition  and being a food aficionado, I  love to make this  delicious and  fascinatingly flavored drink. This aromatic musky flavors are the smoky flavors of  Oodh.

Oudh/Aloeswood  is derived from an Agarwood tree that grows mostly in Southeast Asia. Agarwood and Oudh, are resin products of infected species of trees, sought from Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees.  The oudh scent known to be fascinating and  rejuvenating is used in aromatic and medicinal  purposes, perfumes and incense sticks. The oudh smoke is also know to perfume the hair of princesses and baby girls.

 This Oudh smoked Milk Sherbet gets this smoky flavor by a very ingenious and artful process.  The procedure involves warming the Oudh granules on a small iron skillet. These granules when heated release a very fragrant smoke. This smoke is then captured in an earthen pot. The pores of the earthen pot help in this process.  The next step involves pouring the sherbet or drink in parts into the earthen pot and shaking it around to absorb the musky flavor.  This sweet milk drink now becomes a smoky sweet milk sherbet/drink.

 This drink is typically made  and served  this time of the Lunar year, which is the 10th, Moharam,  the first month in the Islamic Lunar calendar.  The making and serving of sherbet or the milk drink  at this time is considered  a symbolic gesture to fulfill the hunger and  thirst,  which the men  experienced in the sad  Battle of Karbala in 680 AD which  also martyred  prophet Muhammad’s  grandson  Imam Husain.