Mathri calories
One home mathri of about 21 g, a flaky disc of maida with oil and ajwain, deep-fried, has about 115 calories, and 2 about 230. The oil in the dough and the oil taken up in frying are together more than half the number, which is why mathri is richer per gram than most sweets: about 545 per 100 g.
Mathri is maida kneaded with a generous moyan of oil or ghee, peppercorns and ajwain, pressed into small discs, pricked and fried slowly until flaky and pale. It is a north Indian tea-time and Diwali snack, eaten plain or with achaar, and keeps for weeks.
The textbook recipe uses 2 tablespoons of oil in the dough for 100 g of flour before any frying, which is what makes it flaky and what makes it one of the richest things on this site per gram.
Typical values for a home kitchen, for the portion named next to each number. Other sites often show bigger numbers because they count a bigger serving or a restaurant recipe. Your own katori, roti and oil change the number; Slate adjusts for them.
How many calories are in mathri?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mathri (about 21 g) about 21 g | 115 | 2 g | 11 g | 7 g |
| 2 mathris about 42 g | 230 | 3 g | 21 g | 15 g |
| 4 mathris about 84 g | 455 | 6 g | 43 g | 29 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 545 | 7 g | 51 g | 35 g |
What changes the calories in mathri?
- The moyan: recipes run from 1 to 4 tablespoons of oil or ghee per 100 g of maida, about 15 calories a mathri each way.
- Oil taken up in frying is about a quarter of the number. Slow frying at low heat, which mathri needs, takes up a little more than fast frying.
- Size: shop mathris of 30 to 40 g are half as much again to twice this one.
- Methi mathri, with dried fenugreek leaves, and atta mathri are close per gram. A baked mathri skips the frying oil, about 30 calories less a piece from this recipe.
- Namak para is the same dough with less fat in it, about 520 per 100 g; khasta kachori is about 120 a piece.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the mathri in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 100 g of maida with 2 tablespoons of oil in the dough, 8 crushed peppercorns, ajwain and salt, cut into discs and deep-fried, making 7, with the dough oil counted in full, at IFCT 2017 values. The databank counts all 480 ml of frying oil as eaten, so this page takes the oil taken up as about 14% of the raw weight, the uptake worked out for the samosa on this site, about 3.3 g per mathri, and the finished mathri at 4% moisture, both assumptions. That gives a batch of about 147 g at 545 calories per 100 g and 35% fat; one mathri is a seventh, about 21 g and 115 calories. No lab analysis or opened label for mathri was found in IFCT 2017, NIN's Annexure 8, USDA FNDDS or on a label, so there is no cross-check and no outside range is shown. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour, refined (maida) | 100 g | IFCT 2017 A018 |
| Groundnut oil 2 tablespoons, in the dough | 27.2 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
| Black pepper 8 peppercorns, crushed | 2 g | IFCT 2017 G031 |
| Water to knead a stiff dough: an assumption, cooked off in frying | 35 g | no calories |
| Groundnut oil Taken up in frying: about 14% of the raw weight, as worked out for the samosa on this site (an assumption) | 23 g | IFCT 2017 T005 |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Maida (A018), groundnut oil (T005), black pepper (G031); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. The Art & Science of Cooking recipe ASC364, mathri, 3½ servings of 2
- Indian Nutrient Databank, recipes.xlsx, recipes_servingsize.xlsx and INDB.xlsx (GitHub). Recipe rows and serving count for ASC364
- Sakhale et al., oil uptake of lab-fried samosas (as used on the samosa page), and USDA FNDDS samosa. Frying oil taken up: about 14% of the raw weight, worked out on the samosa page from a fresh-oil lab study (18.3% fat) and USDA FNDDS (17.5 g fat per 100 g)
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 mathri?
About 115 for a home mathri of about 21 g. A big shop mathri of 30 to 40 g is half as much again to twice that.
How many calories are in 2 mathris?
About 230 for two home mathris, and about 455 for four.
How many calories are in 100 g of mathri?
About 545 for this recipe, with about 35 g of fat.
How much fat is in a mathri?
About 7 g in one mathri: the 2 tablespoons of oil in the dough and the oil taken up in frying, in roughly equal shares.
Which has more calories, mathri or samosa?
Per piece the samosa, about 165 against 115 for a mathri, because it is three times the weight. Per 100 g the mathri, which is dry and fried, has more.