Dr Kitchener’s Curry Powder, c.1827

As far back as the Regency we were lazy cooks. We didn’t want to make our own curry powder everytime we wanted a curry. We either wanted to buy it premade (and risk it being full of sawdust and the rest, padded out by a dodgy grocer) or to get the cook to run up a batch and let it go slowly stale and tasteless. Or to buy a takeaway, which was also an option open to us. You don’t see that in so many Regency Romances, do you? Lady Emilia Heatherton chowing down on a takeaway vindaloo after a night out at the assembly rooms?

Ingredients

3 oz Coriander seeds
3 oz Turmeric
1 oz Black pepper
1 oz Mustard
1 oz Ginger
1/2 oz Allspice
1/2 oz Lesser Cardamoms
1/4 oz Cumin Seeds

Equipment

Pestle & Mortar
Bottle

Instructions

Put everything into the pestle and pound with the mortar until you have a fine dust. (be grateful this doesn’t include cinnamon, because that’s an absolute pain to grind down)

our into an airtight bottle. and keep out of direct sunlight.