Spice first came over to England as far back as the 14th century, in 1309. It was in the court of King Richard II that his palace cooks produced the first English recipe book ‘The Forme of Curry’. In the King’s Cookbook there was a dish of chicken stew that contained spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander, cumin and saffron, most of these ingredients are used in a korma today!
The journey of spice from the subcontinent of India to Britain can be traced to the fifteenth century, when the Persians were the keepers of the spice trade and controlling the price and flow of the market.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century a Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama sailed into the Indian port of Calicut on the coast of Malabar and the Portuguese took control of this very lucrative spice trade. Thereafter the Europeans started journeys across the seas in their search of spices and the Dutch, the French and eventually the British, set up trading posts in India.
In 1599 a group of London Merchants formed the East India Company to gain a foothold in the spice trade. A young Indian employee of the East India Company, Sake Dean Mahomet, worked, from 1769, with an Irish Officer, Captain Godfrey Evan Baker. Mahomet travelled extensively with the Irish Officer, and when Baker returned to Ireland Mahomet came with him. Later Mahomet moved to London where he noticed the demand for Indian food in the city and so he opened The Hindoostan Coffee House. In this establishment, Mahomet served just a few dishes of Indian food to begin with, but eventually it became immensely popular.
From the King’s table of 1309, curry today has become as popular as Britain’s National dish of fish and chips!
Build up your own spice collection and cook a delicious curry with a recipe from Curry Foodie!
