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Regency Indian curry

  • Writer: Heather Moll
    Heather Moll
  • 1 day ago
  • 3 min read

I’ve been meaning to make this recipe since I first saw it in Jane Austen's Cookbook, especially since it was from Martha Lloyd’s household book. My family enjoys Indian takeout and Indian food cooked at home, so I loved the idea that Jane Austen might have enjoyed a curry too.

Jane Austen's Cookbook, package of whole chicken legs, half an onion, two cloves of garlic, one container of curry powder.

(Yes, there were South Asians living in England in Shakespeare’s time, let alone the Georgian era. There would have been even more at that time as the East India Company expanded further in India. Lascars (sailors) from India come to Britain and stayed, and British women were largely absent from India, so intermarriage and affairs happened. Their children were often sent to England to grow up in their fathers’ family's households. But there were also Indian travelers to the west who stayed, too.


Historian Michael Fisher suggests between 1600--1850, 40,000 Indian men and women of all social classes made the voyage west and some settled, often marrying into British society. While that initial 40,000 would have only been %1 of the population around 1800, they would have married and had children. And, of course, they brought their cultures, values, and food with them. So much so that the women in a small village in Hampshire had a curry in their family cookbook.)


Here’s the original recipe I had to work with.

A Receipt to Curry after the Indian Manner Cut two Chickens as for fricasseeing, wash them clean & put them in a stew pan with as much water as will cover them, with a large spoonful of salt sprinkle them & let them boil till tender covered close all the time, skim them well; when boiled enough take up the Ghickens & put the liquor of them in a pan, then put half a pound of fresh butter in the pan & brown it a little, put into it two cloves of garlic E a large onion sliced & let these all fry till brown often shaking the pan, then put in Chickens & sprinkle over them two or three spoonfuls of curry powder, then cover them close & let the Chickens do till brown frequently shaking the Pan, then put in the Liquor the Chickens were boiled in & let all stew till tender. If acid is agreeable squeeze the juice of a Lemon or Orange into it. (M.L., page51-2.)

 

I was concerned at first. It sounded like I had to boil the heck out of this chicken. I wasn’t ready to trust the process, so I seared my whole chicken legs before adding less water than suggested and covering. I also googled bone-in chicken skillet cook times because “until tender” isn’t enough detail for me.


Isn’t “liquor” a more interesting way to say “cooking liquid”?

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Here’s my boiled chicken and liquor, along with a glass of wine because at this point I was pretty sure I messed up and my husband would eat a frozen pizza for dinner and I would eat sad boiled chicken.


Things are always better with onion and garlic—and a glass of wine—so I carried on. Jane Austen’s Cookbook had a recipe for curry powder I intended to use, but I couldn’t find galangal at any local grocery store. Yes, I could have put in an effort to go to an Asian market. But I wasn’t sure how much time and money to put into a recipe that had me start with boiling chicken.

Curree Powder Take of Termeric Root, & Galangal Root each half an oz. Best Cayenne Pepper a quarter of an oz. Let the Termeric & Galangal be reduced to a fine powder separately, then mix them with the other articles & keep for use - NB. two oz. of Rice powderd to be mixed also with the other ingredients. - Mrs. Jane Fowle. (M.L., page 76.)

My store-bought curry had cayenne and turmeric, along with other things, so I went with that. I added twice as much as the recipe suggested—no regrets.


Now, I had hope! We’re starting to look and smell like proper food now. After cooking it in the pan with the reserved “liquor”, I cut the chicken pieces and tossed them in the curry. All that worry for nothing! Don’t be afraid to boil some chicken if you add enough spices at the end.


My husband, once he scraped off the offending onions, really liked this. I will definitely make this again with whatever chicken pieces I have in the house. This is the only dinner recipe, to date, that I would repeat from this cookbook. See all my attempts here.

 

What do you think about Austen potentially enjoying some Indian curry? Would you make this at home? Now that I’ve finally found something we like enough to eat regularly, I’m eager to dig in to the cookbook and find more.


 

 

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