A Common Indian Currie

History

The foundational concept of the curry—a spiced gravy accompanying meat—emerged from the sophisticated kormas and salans of the Mughal Empire in Northern India. These dishes relied on a complex interplay of ginger, garlic, and a wide array of ground seeds and pods, slow-cooked in fats to create a rich, emulsified sauce that could be tailored to the preferences of the imperial court.

By the 18th century, the British East India Company began translating these flavors for European palates, leading to the creation of 'curry powder' as a standardized, pre-mixed commodity. This shifted the dish from a bespoke culinary art into a reproducible formula. The resulting 'Anglo-Indian' style simplified the layering of spices, often adding flour as a thickener and butter as a fat source to align the texture with European stews and ragouts.

By the mid-19th century, curry had moved from a novelty the British regarded as exotic to a staple of their domestic repertoire. In Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845), Eliza Acton codifies this 'Common Indian Currie' not as a foreign curiosity, but as a versatile household meal, offering substitutions like veal or fowl to suit the available larder of a Victorian home.

Ingredients

• 1 pound meat (veal, mutton, or beef)
• 1 heaped tablespoon good currie powder
• 1 small teaspoon salt
• 1 large teaspoon flour
• 1 to 4 or 5 large onions, sliced
• 1 small clove garlic
• 1/2 dozen eschalots
• butter
• as much as boiling water
• optional acid apple or vegetables
• optional lemon-juice
• optional Cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Mix together the currie powder, salt, and flour.
2. Cut the meat into thick small cutlets or dice, and rub half of the mixed powder equally over it.
3. Fry the sliced onions gently in butter (with or without garlic or eschalots according to taste) until they are of a fine golden brown.
4. Lift the onions out with a slice and lay them on a sieve to drain.
5. Throw a little more butter into the pan and fry the meat lightly in it.
6. Drain the meat well from fat and lay it into a clean stewpan or saucepan.
7. Strew the onion over the meat and pour in as much boiling water as will almost cover it.
8. Mix the remainder of the currie-powder smoothly with a little broth or cold water.
9. After the currie has stewed for a few minutes, pour in the powder mixture, shaking the pan well round that it may be smoothly blended with the gravy.
10. Simmer the whole very softly until the meat is perfectly tender, from one and a quarter to two and a half hours according to the quantity and nature of the meat.
11. If desired, add optional vegetables such as acid apples, very young green peas, or cucumbers pared, seeded, and cut small, allowing proper time for cooking each variety.
12. If no other acid is in the currie, stir in lemon-juice before serving.
13. Serve with a dish of boiled rice.