- Joined
- Dec 4, 2011
This recipe for chicken curry comes from Eliza Leslie's New Cookery Book, 1857, but the dish went back at least to the 1830s American Frugal Housewife. Some recipes hint at an Indian origin, but the true beginning of the popularity of curry is uncertain. Some say it comes from a Tamil word, others from Old English via French. It seems to have become popular by the very early 19th Century in England, and made its way from there to here.
Below is Miss Leslie's recipe, which has the unusual addition of coconut:
Having skinned a pair of fine chickens, cut them into six pieces each, that is, two wings, two pieces of the breast, and two legs cut off at the joint. Put into a stew-pan two boiled onions chopped, and four ounces or four table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Shake the pan till the contents begin to simmer; then add four table-spoonfuls of curry-powder and mix it well in; also, four table-spoonfuls of grated cocoanut. Mix all well in the stew-pan, and then put in the pieces of chicken. Cover the pan, and let all stew moderately for half an hour, stirring it round occasionally; and, if getting too dry, add a little hot water. Also, towards the last, the grated yellow rind of a lemon and the juice. It should stew till the chicken is quite tender, and till the flesh parts easily from the bones. Serve it up hot, in a covered dish, and send half a pound of boiled rice in a separate dish, uncovered. This is a dish for company.
Curry powder is available commercially today, but to gain insight into what it contained in the period, there are two recipes for the powder itself in the Cook's Own Book.
An article here reprinted a period chart with many variations, showing which ingredients were most common.
An on an almost molecular level, here's an analysis of commercial curry powder in England.
In the chicken curry recipe above, Miss Leslie doesn't make clear if you actually remove the meat from the bones, or serve it with the bones but very tender. Other period recipes don't clarify either, though they do note that the sauce or gravy should be boiled thick and served with the chicken. Miss Leslie's concept of chicken curry is very typical, except for the coconut. Don't know how she got that idea.
Below is Miss Leslie's recipe, which has the unusual addition of coconut:
Having skinned a pair of fine chickens, cut them into six pieces each, that is, two wings, two pieces of the breast, and two legs cut off at the joint. Put into a stew-pan two boiled onions chopped, and four ounces or four table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Shake the pan till the contents begin to simmer; then add four table-spoonfuls of curry-powder and mix it well in; also, four table-spoonfuls of grated cocoanut. Mix all well in the stew-pan, and then put in the pieces of chicken. Cover the pan, and let all stew moderately for half an hour, stirring it round occasionally; and, if getting too dry, add a little hot water. Also, towards the last, the grated yellow rind of a lemon and the juice. It should stew till the chicken is quite tender, and till the flesh parts easily from the bones. Serve it up hot, in a covered dish, and send half a pound of boiled rice in a separate dish, uncovered. This is a dish for company.
Curry powder is available commercially today, but to gain insight into what it contained in the period, there are two recipes for the powder itself in the Cook's Own Book.
An article here reprinted a period chart with many variations, showing which ingredients were most common.
An on an almost molecular level, here's an analysis of commercial curry powder in England.
In the chicken curry recipe above, Miss Leslie doesn't make clear if you actually remove the meat from the bones, or serve it with the bones but very tender. Other period recipes don't clarify either, though they do note that the sauce or gravy should be boiled thick and served with the chicken. Miss Leslie's concept of chicken curry is very typical, except for the coconut. Don't know how she got that idea.
Bringing the