Rare Cookbooks: Anglo-Indian Cookery at Home: 1893 - Henrietta Hervey

 

By the mid-19^th century, the emergence of a new style of Indian cooking to suit the English palate had firmly made their way into colonial homes in India. Anglo Indian cuisine was well and truly embedded in British culinary life with curries, and chutney a common feature on every British meal table. In the wake of such a development, and the fascination with curries led to some of the finest Anglo-Indian cookbooks written at the time.

Like Grace Johnson, who wrote the award winning Anglo Indian and Oriental Cookery in 1893, there was another famous writer, Henrietta Hervey whose cookbook is a quite famous treatise on food of the times. Hervey lived for 23 years in India, the wife of a colonial officer. She wrote the books Anglo Indian Cookery at Home: a short treatise for returned exiles in 1895. When she returned home to England, she also took along her kitchen dekchies, (cooking vessels), her curry stone, her curry powders and her passion for curry making.

A recipe from the book Indian cookery, as practiced and described by the natives of the East by Sandford Arnot-1831

Hervey’s book may be more than 100 years old but within its pages you will find recipes still common to many Anglo-Indian homes throughout India. To cite the writeup on which a compiled edition may be available at the Online Book depository and published by Cambridge Library Collection

“Henrietta Hervey, published this little classic in 1895. On returning from years in India she brought her 'dekchies' (Indian metal cooking vessels), her curry powders, curry stone, and an enthusiasm for curry making. Although her book is more than 100 years old, the classic Anglo-Indian recipes all work and are as good today as ever. Within it's pages you'll find recipes - for soups, fish, curries and more - such as: Mock Turtle soup, "Ballachow" rice, Chicken curry, "Khoorma" curry, "Bombay" pudding, a wide range of chutneys to accompany main dishes and pages where you can make your own notes.”

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(This work has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights and is being made available under the Creative Commons, Public Domain Mark. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, without asking permission. This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library where the originals may be consulted.)

A reproduced copy of this book is available on some platforms like Snap Deal and Book Depository as an edition of two cookbooks titled: Two Anglo Indian Cookery Books. By the Cambridge Library Press.

Andrew Alpin