South America → Paraguay → Asunción
🍰 DESSERT
Dulce de Mamón
Green papaya slow-cooked in clove-and-cinnamon syrup until translucent and jammy, a Paraguayan pantry sweet.
Paraguayan · easy · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 190 min · plus 2 h hands-off time
~348 cal · 0g protein · 90g carbs · 0g fat · 2g fiber · 86g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Dulce de mamon is the classic Paraguayan preserve, made from mamon, the green unripe papaya that grows all over the country. Cooked slowly in a heavy sugar syrup, the hard raw fruit transforms into glistening, translucent strips with a gentle, floral sweetness.
It is a dulce de almibar, a fruit-in-syrup preserve of the kind once made in every household to see the harvest through the year. A pinch of bicarbonate keeps the papaya firm and clear rather than mushy, and cloves and cinnamon give the syrup its warmth.
It is eaten in small amounts, very sweet, often with a slice of fresh cheese to cut it, and kept in jars to offer to visitors. For many Paraguayans the smell of it cooking is pure childhood.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 2 lb green (unripe) papaya, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 cup orange juice (optional, for dulce de mamón con naranja)
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 5 whole cloves
- 4 cups water
Instructions
- 1Soak the sliced papaya in water with the baking soda (or slaked lime, cal virgen) for at least 2 to 3 hours, ideally overnight, then rinse it very thoroughly several times.✎ Chef’s noteThe long soak firms the papaya so it stays in clear, intact pieces through hours of cooking instead of collapsing into jam. Rinse it properly afterwards or the finished sweet carries an off taste.
- 2Bring the water, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves to a simmer until the sugar dissolves into a syrup.
- 3Add the papaya and cook gently, uncovered, stirring only occasionally and carefully, until the pieces turn deep golden and translucent and the syrup thickens, 3 to 4 hours.
- 4Cool in the syrup and store in jars. Serve in small portions with fresh cheese.
Paraguayan preserving tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Asunción. Terere is mate drunk cold, poured from a thermos over ice and pounded herbs and passed round a circle through a metal straw, which is how the city gets through the heat. Chipa, a chewy ring of cassava starch and cheese, is what gets sold at bus windows and eaten in quantity through Holy Week.
🗺️
Paraguay. Terere is mate served cold. Yerba is packed into a guampa, iced water poured over it, often infused first with medicinal herbs called yuyos crushed to order, and the thermos is carried everywhere through the subtropical heat. Paraguayan terere practice, with its yuyos, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2020.
🌍
South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Paraguay
MbejúA chewy, crisp-edged starch-and-cheese griddle cake, gluten-free and pan-cooked to order, eaten with cocido at daybreak.
Vori VoriA golden chicken broth thick with little cornmeal-and-cheese dumplings, Paraguay's warming everyday soup.
So'o YosopyA thick Guarani beef soup of finely ground meat and a little rice, stirred constantly into a smooth, savoury broth and served with cassava.
Browse all Paraguay recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Paraguay meal
Pira Caldo (Paraguayan River Fish Soup)Dinner
TereréDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Dulce de Mamón?
Green papaya slow-cooked in clove-and-cinnamon syrup until translucent and jammy, a Paraguayan pantry sweet.
Where does Dulce de Mamón come from?
Dulce de Mamón is a Paraguayan dish from Asunción, Paraguay.
Can Dulce de Mamón be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Dulce de Mamón recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Dulce de Mamón safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Dulce de Mamón take to make?
About 5 h 30 min in all: 20 minutes prep and 190 minutes cooking, plus 2 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
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