of the kind sold commercially, represents an attempt by British (originally and still primarily) manufacturers to provide in ready-made form a spice mixture corresponding to those used in S. India. The latter are called kari podi; kari because they incorporate kari leaves (see curry leaf).
A mixture in S. India, as noted already under curry, is likely to include also coriander, cumin, and mustard seeds; red and black pepper; fenugreek; and turmeric—with the possible additions of cinnamon and cloves and cardamom, and channa dal (split chickpeas). All these are roasted and ground to a powder. The powder is freshly prepared when needed.
Since it was this sort of mixture which the British in India sought to replicate in standard forms, it is to the most notable writer on Anglo-indian cookery that we turn for information. Colonel Kenney-Herbert (1885) gave as ingredients in his ‘stock receipt for curry powder’ ‘turmeric, coriander-seed, cumin-seed, fenugreek, mustard-seed, dried chillies, black pepper corns, poppy-seed, dry-ginger’. The first seven items correspond to the first seven in the preceding paragraph, and only the last two are different; thus the resemblance is close.
Commercial mixtures had been available to cooks in Britain from late in the 18th century (at least one recipe (H. Glasse, 1796) of the 1790s calls for ‘curry powder’), but seem not to have been a common article of commerce until later. Such mixtures, then and subsequently, have varied considerably but have usually contained many or most of the ingredients mentioned above (except cardamom, which has hardly ever been used).
At the close of the 19th century, Law's Grocer's Manual listed 12 recipes for curry powder, drawing on 19 ingredients. These included rice flour; and an excess of this or an addition of sago flour were mentioned as two of several possible adulterants.
In recent times, increased awareness of what Indian cooking in its authentic form is like has created a demand in Britain for curry powders which bear a closer relationship to it. However, the uses to which the powders are put in western countries—uses which stem back to Anglo-Indian cookery—do not, generally speaking, correspond to Indian practices. The whole curry powder scene is always going to be irreconcilable with its origins.
It is, incidentally, not only the British who use curry powder. In France poudre de curry is obtainable, and in Denmark, with its long tradition of trade with the Orient, there has for long been a ‘karry’ powder available (but a relatively mild version.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
