Education
Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition based on South Asian cuisine.
It is a mixture of coriander, cumin and mustard seeds; red and black pepper; fenugreek and turmeric with possible additions of cinnamon and cloves and cardamoms. All these are roasted and ground to a powder.
The word of curry derived from the Tamil word ‘kari’, which refers to spice vegetable dishes served with rice. This definition used in Hobson-Jobson Anglo English Dictionary, first published in 1886.
Indeed Hobson -Jobson even accepts that there is a possibility that “the kind of curry used by Europeans and Mohammedans is not of purely Indian origin, but has come down from the spiced cookery of medieval Europe and Western Asia.”
The concept of curry powder was invented by British colonialists in India to describe a a specific mixture of spices, which then became a fixture in British cooking.
The history of Indian cuisine go back over five thousand year ago to the Indus Valley civilization that flourished in the northern part of the country
As the Indus Valley gave away to later culture such as the Harappan and Vedic, increasing of the use and later cultivation of turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard became more common.
By 3000 B.C. turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard were harvested in India. The Harappans who occupied Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley, were of mixed stock, somewhat larger in stature than either the Sumerians or Egyptians denying theories that they were an extension of those communities.
They had club wheat, barley, sheep and goats from the Iranian Plateau and cotton from Southern Arabia or North East Africa but were held back by their reliance on flood waters due to general lack of knowledge of irrigation.
There is evidence in the Harappan civilization that the curry powders, which continue to characterize Indian food, were already in use at the earliest sites.
During that time stones with large hollows were used for the preparation of curry powder. Stone pallets, mostly of slate were used for rubbing down colors.
Sumer had trade links with the Indus Valley via Hindu Kush by 3000 B.C. and by sea from 2500 B.C., thus linking the Harappans with both Sumerians and Egyptians, where cumin, anise and cinnamon were used for embalming by 2500 B.C.
By 1750 B.C., the Harappan civilization had disappeared, probably due to floods and tectonic shifts, to be replaced by the Aryans who invaded via Hindu Kush by 1500 B.C. The Aryans had considerable contact with Babylon from whence the original flood legend arose to be adopted by both the Aryans and the Hebrews and several other civilizations.
The earliest known recipe for meat in spicy sauce with bread appeared on tablets found near Babylon in Mesopotamia, written in cuniform text as discovered by the Sumerians, and dated around 1700 B.C., probably as an offering to the god Marduk.
A taste for curried food has a long history in the United Kingdom. The first recipe for curry in a British cookbook dates from the mid-eighteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century such recipes were commonplace.
However, the recipe for ‘kari’ appeared earlier in 17th century Portuguese cookery book, probably reflecting a practice which had begin in the 16th century.
Curry powder in history
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Education
Curry powder in history
Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition based on South Asian cuisine.
It is a mixture of coriander, cumin and mustard seeds; red and black pepper; fenugreek and turmeric with possible additions of cinnamon and cloves and cardamoms. All these are roasted and ground to a powder.
The word of curry derived from the Tamil word ‘kari’, which refers to spice vegetable dishes served with rice. This definition used in Hobson-Jobson Anglo English Dictionary, first published in 1886.
Indeed Hobson -Jobson even accepts that there is a possibility that “the kind of curry used by Europeans and Mohammedans is not of purely Indian origin, but has come down from the spiced cookery of medieval Europe and Western Asia.”
The concept of curry powder was invented by British colonialists in India to describe a a specific mixture of spices, which then became a fixture in British cooking.
The history of Indian cuisine go back over five thousand year ago to the Indus Valley civilization that flourished in the northern part of the country
As the Indus Valley gave away to later culture such as the Harappan and Vedic, increasing of the use and later cultivation of turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard became more common.
By 3000 B.C. turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard were harvested in India. The Harappans who occupied Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley, were of mixed stock, somewhat larger in stature than either the Sumerians or Egyptians denying theories that they were an extension of those communities.
They had club wheat, barley, sheep and goats from the Iranian Plateau and cotton from Southern Arabia or North East Africa but were held back by their reliance on flood waters due to general lack of knowledge of irrigation.
There is evidence in the Harappan civilization that the curry powders, which continue to characterize Indian food, were already in use at the earliest sites.
During that time stones with large hollows were used for the preparation of curry powder. Stone pallets, mostly of slate were used for rubbing down colors.
Sumer had trade links with the Indus Valley via Hindu Kush by 3000 B.C. and by sea from 2500 B.C., thus linking the Harappans with both Sumerians and Egyptians, where cumin, anise and cinnamon were used for embalming by 2500 B.C.
By 1750 B.C., the Harappan civilization had disappeared, probably due to floods and tectonic shifts, to be replaced by the Aryans who invaded via Hindu Kush by 1500 B.C. The Aryans had considerable contact with Babylon from whence the original flood legend arose to be adopted by both the Aryans and the Hebrews and several other civilizations.
The earliest known recipe for meat in spicy sauce with bread appeared on tablets found near Babylon in Mesopotamia, written in cuniform text as discovered by the Sumerians, and dated around 1700 B.C., probably as an offering to the god Marduk.
A taste for curried food has a long history in the United Kingdom. The first recipe for curry in a British cookbook dates from the mid-eighteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century such recipes were commonplace.
However, the recipe for ‘kari’ appeared earlier in 17th century Portuguese cookery book, probably reflecting a practice which had begin in the 16th century.
Curry powder in history
- Muffin In History
Muffin recipes first began to appear in print in the mid 18th century and quickly caught on. The word muffin is derived from the French word moufflet, which is often applied to breads and means soft. By the 19th century muffin men walked the streets of...
- Ancient History Of Rice
Japan has long been famous for the excellence of its rice. It was suggested that rice cultivation in Japan began about 28900 years ago. With the introduction of wet-paddy rice farming around 300 BC, the Japanese established more stable farming communities....
- History Of The Earliest Painting
The earliest known paintings, representing animals hunted for food, were made by Stone Age artists on the walls if caves of Lascaux, in France, around 25,000 BC. The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures. Over 900 can be identified as animals. Plato an Athenian...
- Domestication Of Cattle
Cattle were the first domestic animas capable of pulling a plough. The earliest evidence for the domestication of cattle, during the 8,000 BC, points toward the marshland and forest of the Middle Euphrates Basin. Humped Zebu (Bos indicus) are believed...
- The History And Origin Of Mango
Native to northeast India, north western Myanmar and Bangladesh, they later spread to the rest of Asia by themselves and with the help of humans. The identification of a 65 million year old record of a leaf fossil belonging to the Mangifera in Meghalaya...