SC - curry leaves?

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Ras wrote:

>This plant is not the same thing as the plant described by someone else on
>the list as a curry plant which had needle-like leaves.


O.K., I missed that description, and since I was only consulting books on
culinary herbs, none of them mentioned this one. And I forgot that "herb" in
English doesn´t neccessarily mean "culinary herb" - you see, the term used
in my language, "kryddjurt" can only mean a culinary herb, so I sometimes
forget the English term covers a much wider field. Thank you for explaining.

>Somewhere along the way, an enterprising businessman decided to standardize
>this blend and market it as 'curry powder.'

Yes. Hannah Glasse gives (in 1747) a recipe for making "Currey the Indian
way" (chicken with turmeric, ginger and pepper beat very fine). Mary
Randolph has, in The Virginia Housewife, a recipe for homemade curry powder
(equal quantities of turmeric, coriander seed, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, mace
and cayenne pepper). Eliza Acton talks in 1845 about "the great superiority
of the oriental curries over those generally prepared in England", but Mrs.
Beeton says that commercial curry powder is generally speaking far superior
to homemade. You can se a clear downward trend there ...

Nanna



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