An old recipe for chicken curry has been found in a British cookbook that dates back to 1796. Chefs say the instructions to make a dish that today’s tikka masala fans will love. Great-gran Sylvia Sibley discovered the book inside an old kitchen drawer while cleaning her late mother’s home.
Cook and the author of the book Hannah Glasse explained how to make curry “the Indian way”. The recipe stated: “Take two small chickens, skin them and cut them as for fricassee, wash them and stew in a quart of water.” And add ginger, pepper and turmeric according to the curry taste. Raj Sharman, executive head chef for The Sun’s owners News International, tried the recipe and found it quite tasty.
“It’s very, very tasty,” he said. The book is a second edition of Glasse’s 1747 book 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'. She wrote it when George II was King and the last beheading took place at London’s Tower Hill.
The book, which was intended to provide an instruction manual for servants, might rake in almost 500 pounds.