Episode 17: How have curries changed as they moved across the world?

Lan Lam (0:00)

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Nik Sharma (1:23)

Welcome to a new episode of In the Test Kitchen, where today the role of Lan Lam will be played by me.

Growing up in India, the word curry was often used to refer to dishes that had no name. Now South Asian cooks had been masterfully blending spices for centuries. And when the Portuguese came, they brought chilies, which completely changed the course of Indian cuisine. By the time the British arrived, Indian cuisine was already undoing a massive transformation.

Now curries have also moved across the globe over the past 400 years, and in every country they came, it took on a new identity. So today we're asking three questions. How have curries changed across the globe, and what stays the same and what has changed?

Lan Lam (2:04)

Welcome to In the Test Kitchen, a culinary playground and proving ground where recipes are developed, tested and tasted until they're as close to perfect as possible. And now you're invited inside as we discuss and debate the most popular foods at ATK and beyond.

I'm Lan Lam, recipe developer and host of Technically.

Bryan Roof (2:23)

I'm Bryan Roof, food editor and host of On the Road.

Nik Sharma (2:27)

I'm Nik Sharma, editor in residence and the host of Flavor Forward.

Lidey Hoyt (2:30)

I'm Lidey Hoyt, cookbook author and editor in chief of Food52.

Lan Lam (2:34)

Grab your apron. You're in the Test Kitchen.

Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, but curry powder is a thing the British made up, right? Like, there's no curry powder.

Nik Sharma (2:48)

I don't know what it is exactly. I have never bought one in my life.

Bryan Roof (2:52)

Really?

Lan Lam (2:53)

Why would you?

Lidey Hoyt (2:53)

We need to get one so Nik can try it.

Nik Sharma (2:56)

Yeah, it was the most foreign thing to me, being an Indian person that moved to America more than 20 years ago.

Bryan Roof (3:01)

Okay.

Nik Sharma (3:02)

Like, what are people talking about?

Bryan Roof (3:04)

Really?

Nik Sharma (3:05)

And like Lan's exactly right, it was something that was created out of convenience.

For me, when people talk about curry powder, the two things that come to mind, warm spices and turmeric powder. And it turns out I was right when I looked at recipes like coronation chicken, and curry puffs, those kind of recipes, where it's a generic thing, which is convenient. And not to say that Indian home cooks don't buy commercial spices, my mom does that all the time. It makes life easy.

Lidey Hoyt (3:35)

So to you, what does the word curry mean?

Nik Sharma (3:38)

It's literally anything that my parents made that had no name. So like a generic home curry, whether it was chicken or fish, that they just threw things together, we would call that as a curry. But in India, and I'm guessing this is true but also most South Asian countries, where curries exist, there is a specific name. So Vindaloo or Sarpatel, which are two different pork curries, I would never call them a curry.

Lidey Hoyt (4:02)

Okay, okay, because they're called what they are. I'm a little embarrassed to tell you what comes to mind when I think of curry because growing up, we just, we did have curry powder. I think of curry chicken salad, which is probably an abomination, but I think-