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The Indian Cookery Book
- Year
- 1869
- Era
- 19th century
- Origin
- India · South Asia
- Language
- English
- Category
- South Asia
The Indian Cookery Book, compiled anonymously by "A Thirty-Five Years' Resident" and issued at Calcutta by Wyman & Co. in 1869, is among the earliest English-language culinary manuals produced in India itself rather than in Britain. Drawing on long colonial household experience, it records Anglo-Indian kitchen practice, vernacular ingredients and regional dishes, offering an important domestic counterpart to the metropolitan curry literature of the period.
Cooking from this book
Mulligatawny Soup
Signature dishFew dishes capture the Anglo-Indian kitchen of the Raj quite like mulligatawny, and this Calcutta-published volume treats it as something of a household staple. A spiced, broth-based soup whose name derives from Tamil words for pepper water, it became a fixture at colonial tables, served thickened with lentils or rice and enriched with meat. Its prominence here reflects the compiler's long residence in India and the practical, household character of the book.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
