LONDON: The world record for the largest samosa has been created in London on Tuesday.
The enormous snack, weighing in at 153.1 (337.5 pounds) kilogrammes, was made by a team of Muslim Aid volunteers at the East London Mosque on Tuesday, the Evening Standard newspaper reported.
Adjudicators from Guinness World Records were on hand to oversee the process and certify that the mega-samosa passed the required tests.
The previous record of 110.8 kg was set by Bradford College in northern England in June 2012.
The king-sized samosa was built on a giant wire mesh, then winched into a vat of cooking oil before being hauled out to be weighed.
“My heart was beating really fast,” said Farid Islam, 26, the project organiser.
“It was very tense. It looked like it was going to slide off. A crack appeared and I feared the worst,” he told AFP.
Thumbs-up verdict
Guinness World Records adjudicator Pravin Patel spelled out the rules.
“It’s got to be triangular; contain flour, potatoes, onions and peas; be fried, and retain the shape when cooked,” he told AFP.
“It’s got to look and feel like a samosa; it’s got to be edible by humans. “The critical record is the net weight. Plus it all has to be eaten. No wastage!”
After the team carefully made the triangle-shaped super-snack, it was hauled up to the industrial winch by the biggest men available and slowly plunged into the vat.
Once it was winched out, and after the nervy weigh-in, the independent food safety officer, who had overseen proceedings, gave it the taste test. A simple thumbs-up triggered cheers around the hall.
It was then down to Patel to tie up all the certification and deliver the verdict: 153.1 kg.
“It’s an absolutely great achievement,” he declared.
Organiser Islam said it was a tough challenge.
“Initially I thought it would be a piece of cake: stuff it together, tie up the end and fry it,” he said.”When I realised there was not a single pot in the country that could hold that weight, we had to get something tailor made.”
The gigantic samosa took around 15 hours of work and was dished up into hundreds of portions and distributed to the local homeless via the Salvation Army.
#GuinnessWorldRecord for the largest samosa is smashed in London. It was then served to local homeless https://t.co/4WGm7NfpOt pic.twitter.com/gPbk6UDzKK
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 22, 2017
Members of the mosque said they decided to make the samosa to highlight the “generosity of Muslim people during religious festivals like Eid”.
Muslim Aid’s Zac Hussain, said: “We wanted to make a larger-than-ever version of this popular snack to demonstrate visually how people of the Muslim faith work tirelessly throughout the year, and particularly during Eid, doing charitable acts to support the unfortunate in the community around them and further afield.”
A Guinness World Records spokesperson said: “This is an impressive achievement by Muslim Aid and a lot of hard work and determination has gone into this attempt to ensure its success.”
AFP/ IANS inputs