Victorian curry recipe. We have come a long way.

[Anna N]

An interesting article about the discovery of a hand-written recipe for curry.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-30718727

[nickrey]

The book "Culinary Jottings for Madras, Or, A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles"  was written by Colonel Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert (nom de plume, Wyvern) in 1878. This has a curry recipe that I have used to good effect in recent times. It does involve the making of a curry powder but if ground fresh, I challenge anyone to tell it apart from true Indian curries made with freshly ground masala.  This curry recipe nine years later obviously missed the use of coconut milk, etc that was in the earlier recipe. Methinks the journalist doesn't know much about the history of curry in England, despite referring to Lizzie Collingham's solid book on the subject.

[GlorifiedRice]

Apples? Is this perhaps what has inspired "Vermont" Curry in Japan?

[Kerry Beal]

The curry recipe I grew up with included apple.

[ChrisTaylor]

The book "Culinary Jottings for Madras, Or, A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles"  was written by Colonel Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert (nom de plume, Wyvern) in 1878. This has a curry recipe that I have used to good effect in recent times. It does involve the making of a curry powder but if ground fresh, I challenge anyone to tell it apart from true Indian curries made with freshly ground masala.  This curry recipe nine years later obviously missed the use of coconut milk, etc that was in the earlier recipe. Methinks the journalist doesn't know much about the history of curry in England, despite referring to Lizzie Collingham's solid book on the subject.

 

Perhaps it's not too far removed from recipes for things like tagines or pasta sauces circa the seventies, when people couldn't easily get some now widely-available ingredients in the Australian suburbs, so recipes were altered accordingly by their authors. Or recipes in restaurant books now that adapt a sous vide preparation to work in a regular oven. A recipe for the masses rather than those truly dedicated to the task/with deep pockets.

 

EDIT

 

Incidentally, I'm fairly certain Larousse Gastronomique has one or two curry recipes that are basically the above recipe plus a handful of spices. I think one of them even includes a ham-based mirepoix. 

[Deryn]

I have no idea where I got the recipes but I recall when I was a new bride (back in the dark ages, in the far north) I made a mulligatawny soup with apples in it and also a creamed curry with apples too. I am guessing that there was absolutely no chance those were authentic Indian - but I didn't know that when I was 20. They were good but very, very mild compared to most curries I eat these days. We were wimps I guess.

[GlorifiedRice]

I have no idea where I got the recipes but I recall when I was a new bride (back in the dark ages, in the far north) I made a mulligatawny soup with apples in it and also a creamed curry with apples too. I am guessing that there was absolutely no chance those were authentic Indian - but I didn't know that when I was 20. They were good but very, very mild compared to most curries I eat these days. We were wimps I guess.

I love Mulligatawny Its perfect in every way

[Kim Shook]

Can't chime in on the curry itself, since I don't care for curry in any form, but this struck me:

 

"watching a wedge of dripping coat the base of my pan felt inherently wrong".  

 

This woman is supposed to be a food writer?  I know that on a daily basis most of us use more healthy fats - olive oil, canola, etc. - but the aversion she expresses is a bit odd.  I don't use my bacon drippings as much as I used to, but I still do use them.  And what the heck are beef roast drippings for but to make gravy and roast potatoes?

[Katie Meadow]

I know this isn't exactly the point of this thread, but let's say you had beef, drippings, apples, onion and bit of flour. If I were going to make a curry I might make a beef and onion curry using drippings and them make an apple chutney on the side. Let's say I was really flush, and had a few potatoes. I would braise the meat with the onions and drippings, make some potato pancakes and some apple sauce to go with. The curry recipe as written might have come to mind if I only had one pan and one utensil and limited fuel.

[Anna N]

Can't chime in on the curry itself, since I don't care for curry in any form, but this struck me:

 

"watching a wedge of dripping coat the base of my pan felt inherently wrong".  

 

This woman is supposed to be a food writer?  I know that on a daily basis most of us use more healthy fats - olive oil, canola, etc. - but the aversion she expresses is a bit odd.  I don't use my bacon drippings as much as I used to, but I still do use them.  And what the heck are beef roast drippings for but to make gravy and roast potatoes?

To be fair I am not sure Lauren Potts ever claimed to be a food writer. I believe she is a BBC journalist.

[andiesenji]

The curry recipe I grew up with included apple.

Me too.  My great grandmother and grandfather had both spent time in India in the late 1800s and she was an avid collector of "receipts" wherever she traveled and while she never cooked herself, she was adept at instructing others how to achieve a particular result.

We did not have mangos in western Kentucky in the 1940s but we had apples and peaches, both of which went into curries and chutneys.  Spices were purchased whole and ground - some had to be specially ordered.

Coconuts were grated and some of the meat was dried and was later made into coconut milk for cooking certain recipes. 

My grandpa's cook was a lowcountry Gullah woman and often used coconut in stews that I think were based on West Indian foods. 

I do know that we ate a lot of foods that were odd and mysterious to the neighboring folks.  Often these dishes were refused by visitors because they had never heard of them...

I believe that is why I have always been a culinary adventurer - I loved almost everything, the more exotic the better.

[munchymom]

The chicken curry recipe my (Midwestern) mom made when I was growing up looks pretty similar to this - though it had both apples and raisins in it. No milk, chicken broth was the liquid. It was always served with a bizarre arrangement of condiments to sprinkle on top - shredded coconut, chopped peanuts, I'm thinking even bananas?! I suppose the flavor profile wasn't so different from the curry chicken salad that's common now - much more sweet than spicy.