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