According to a 16th century study, the foods of the Gangetic plain are described as sattu (the flour of roasted pulses), and barley grits eaten with salt or sugar. Pulse preparations included the Bara (vada), mungauri (a mung vada), pakauri (pakoda), methauri (a pakora spiced with hi), dubaki (identified as a boiled pakoda) and rolled-up Khandvi pancake now identified with Gujarat. The sweet dishes included the lapsi, a halva of wheat flour, kirora, a rice flour laddoo, and kesara, kesari-bath of rava.

Boiled rice, in this region, is called bath by the Hindus and Khushka by the Muslims, and is cooked with linseed to give tisjauri and with poppy seeds to yield danjauri. Lapsi, a popular food item of the region, is the flour of any grain boiled in milk and sugar, if salted, the product is called ghatta.

Sweets
The region is known for numerous sweet delicacies including the gulab jamun, jalebi and rasagulla (also described as a Bengali delicacy). Fine grained motichoor laddoos and sesame-seed (tilkut) laddoos are also very popular sweets.

Sweet crisp-fried bread made from wheat flour, the balushahi glazed with sugar, the date shaped khajur or khurma, the pua with molasses, and the pheni described as a frothy sweetmeat are other famous sweets of the region.

Apart from these, the Halva or Kanchi, made from wheat flour, dried fruits and ghee and the candied gourd delicacy called petha are also noted in this region. Kheer (known as Bakir in U.P. and Rasiya in Bihar) made from rice, milk and sugar also appears in the sweet menu of this region.