curry powder

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Curry powder

Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition based on Indian cuisine. Curry powder, and the contemporary English use of the word curry are Western inventions and do not reflect any specific Indian food. The word curry is widely believed to be a bastardization of the Tamil word kari^[1], meaning something like sauce, but it may also be derived from the French cuire^[2]. In the Western world Curry Powder mixtures tend to have a fairly standardized taste, though a great variety of spice mixtures are used in Indian cuisine.

Curry powder was largely popularized during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the mass exportation of the condiment to the western table - throughout Europe, North and South America. Still, curry powder did not become standardized, as many of the original blends of curry powder were still available throughout the world. The late 60s and early 70s saw a large increase of Indian food consumption in the west and internationally. This led to an increase of Indian restaurants throughout the world. The tradition of keeping special blends of curry powder simply became uneconomical, and curry powder became increasingly standardized outside India.

Indian cooks often have readier access to a variety of fresh spices than their foreign counterparts. Some curry cooks will have their own specific mixtures for different recipes. These are often passed down from parent to child.

Ingredients

Most recipes and producers of curry powder usually include coriander, turmeric, cumin, and fenugreek in their blends. Depending on the recipe, additional ingredients such as ginger, garlic, fennel seed, cinnamon, clove, mustard seed, green cardamom, black cardamom, mace, nutmeg, red pepper, long pepper, and black pepper may also be added.

References

See also

• Curry
• Garam masala

External links

• Foodnetwork's Curry Powder recipe

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