The spirit of cookery

There is a considerable number of typical varieties of curry, of which we will mention a selection. The most noteworthy are the Malay or Ceylon curry ; secondly, the Moli of the Tamils of Southern India, a near relative of the Malay curry (the name being, perhaps, the same word a little differently spelled and pronounced) ; thirdly, the Kubah curry, a kind of grill ; and fourthly, the Quoonna, probably so called from the root known to us as curcuma or turmeric (haldee). The Malay or Ceylon Cimy is peculiar to places where the cocoanut is extensively grown and appreciated. Vegetables of the cucumis or gourd tribe are well adapted for its production ; next are shellfish and ordinary fish, and next chicken or other white meat. The fricassee is rich with the flavour of the juice of the cocoanut, and delicately spiced with mild condiments. It ought to be by no means peppery or hot, though some tincture of red and green chillies may be cautiously added. Instead of cocoanutmilk, that of almonds or Brazil nuts may be used, also the milk of pounded poppy-seeds. Agreeable combinations are prawns and cucumber, crab with gourd, and firm flesh, fish, or chicken, with either of these vegetables. The Moli Curry differs so little from the foregoing that it does not require a separate sketch. Kuhab (Kebob) Curries in great variety are described in old Indian-English cookery-books, and owing to their condiments and ingredients were probably appreciated by early Anglo-Indians who adopted an almost Oriental mode of life more than by moderns. The best kubah curry is one made of tender mutton or veal, and treated as follows : Cut the mutton into pieces about an inch square and half an inch thick; carve some slices of bacon, some pieces an inch square also, but only an eighth of an inch thick ; cut up some pieces of parboiled onions to the same size as the bacon, and some thin slices of green ginger to match. Impale these pieces upon small plated or silver or wooden skewers, in the order of mutton, bacon, onion, ginger. Fill the skewer in this wise, and sprinkle with curry-powder; you now either grill the kubabs before the fire, while basting them a little with butter and gravy, or fry them in butter in a saucepan, with some onion, sugar, and butter, and put them in a curry sauce as above described. Quoorma Curry was one of the most esteemed curries of the Madras Club. It was made with mutton as meat, in the manner sufficiently described in the foregoing. The curry stuff, or mirepoix, received an addition of milk of almonds and of cream of cow’s milk. Turmeric (quoorma) and sugar were added together, and after boiling the curry was pointed with juice of lemon or limes. This is a rich but, owing to the absence of chilli, a mild curry ; and this mildness constitutes in the opinion of many its chief attraction. A mode of rapidly preparing a curry* is the following : Make curry stuff (mirepoix) by frying onions in butter, add curry-powder, and fry a little more ; then add the meat cut into kebobs, and fry until the meat be well browned ; then add a little good broth to obtain a thick sauce, and simmer for a few minutes. CHAPTER XVIII. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SAUCES. Theory of Sauce as derived from its History, Solid varieties of food, soluble only by digestion, are not rarely dry in substance, or unattractive in taste, or in-