General Information
NameCurry powder
Scientific NameNot Available
DescriptionCurry powder is a spice mix of widely varying composition based on South Asian cuisine. Curry powder and the contemporary English use of the word curry are Western inventions and do not reflect any specific Indian food, though a similar mixture of spices used in north India is called garam masala. Curry powder is actually closer to the Tamil sambar powder, and the word curry is widely believed to be a corruption of the Tamil word kari, variously meaning something like sauce, cooked vegetables or meat. In the western world, curry powder mixtures tend to have a fairly standardized taste, though a great variety of spice mixtures are used in Indian cuisine. Curry powder was largely popularized during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the mass export of the condiment to the western table, throughout Europe and North and South America and through its use in British Army nations. Curry powder did not become standardized, as many of the original blends of curry powder were still available throughout the world. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a growth of Indian-based food consumption in the west and internationally. This led to an increase of Indian restaurants throughout the world. The tradition of keeping special blends of curry powder simply became uneconomical, and curry powder became increasingly standardized outside India. Indian cooks often have readier access to a variety of fresh spices than their foreign counterparts. Some curry cooks will have their own specific mixtures for different recipes. These are often passed down from parent to child.
Primary IDFOOD00678
Picture700
Classification
GroupHerbs and Spices
Sub-GroupHerb and spice mixtures
Taxonomy
Lineage
ITIS IDNot Available
Wikipedia IDCurry powder
Composition
Compounds
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Macronutrients
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References
Content Reference— Saxholt, E., et al. 'Danish food composition databank, revision 7.' Department of Nutrition, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (2008).
— U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2008. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page.
— Rothwell JA, Pérez-Jiménez J, Neveu V, Medina-Ramon A, M'Hiri N, Garcia Lobato P, Manach C, Knox K, Eisner R, Wishart D, Scalbert A. (2013) Phenol-Explorer 3.0: a major update of the Phenol-Explorer database to incorporate data on the effects of food processing on polyphenol content. Database, 10.1093/database/bat070.