Curry in the United Kingdom: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|none}}  

[[File:Chicken tikka masala.jpg|thumb|British curry: [[Chicken tikka masala]] has been described as an adopted national dish.]]

[[Curry]], a spicy [[Indian cuisine|Indian]]-derived dish, is popular in the [[United Kingdom]]. Curry recipes have been printed in Britain since 1747, when [[Hannah Glasse]] gave a recipe for a chicken curry. In the 19th century, many more recipes appeared in the popular [[cookbook|cookery books]] of the time. Curries in Britain are widely described using Indian terms, such as [[korma]] for a mild sauce with almond and coconut, [[Madras curry|Madras]] for a hot, slightly sour sauce, [[phall]] for an extra hot sauce and [[pasanda]] for a mild sauce with cream and coconut milk. One type of curry, [[chicken tikka masala]] has become widespread enough to be described as an adopted national dish.

The first curry house opened in London in 1810. More followed early in the 20th century; [[Veeraswamy]], founded in 1926, is the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in Britain. By the 1970s, over three-quarters of the Indian restaurants in the country were owned and run by people of [[Bangladesh]]i origin, mainly from the [[Sylhet]] area.

[[Curry]] is very popular in the United Kingdom, with a curry house in nearly every town. Curry is so popular in the United Kingdom that it has frequently been called its "adopted national dish". In 2016 there were an estimate 12,000 curry houses in the United Kingdom, employing 100,000 people and with annual combined sales of approximately £4.2 billion.

As of 2015, despite curry houses accounting for a fifth of the restaurant business in the United Kingdom, as a result of them being a low wage sector, they were plagued by a shortage of labour. Established South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh were moving on to other occupations; there were difficulties in training Europeans to cook curry; and immigration restrictions, which require payment of a high wage to skilled immigrants, had crimped the supply of new cooks.

== History ==

{{further|English cuisine#Foreign influence}}

The first curry recipe in Britain was published in ''[[Art of Cookery|The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy]]'' by [[Hannah Glasse]] in 1747. The first edition of her book used only black pepper and coriander seeds for seasoning of "currey". By the fourth edition of the book, other ingredients such as turmeric and ginger were called for. The use of hot spices was not mentioned, which reflected the limited use of chili in South Asia — [[Chili pepper|chili plants]] had only been introduced into South Asia around the late 16th century and at that time were only popular in southern India.

Many curry recipes appeared in 19th century cookery books such as those of [[Charles Elmé Francatelli]] and [[Mrs Beeton]]. In ''[[Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management]]'', a recipe for curry powder contains coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, mustard, ginger, allspice and fenugreek; although she notes that it is more economical to purchase the powder at "any respectable shop". Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, curry grew increasingly popular in Britain owing to the large number of British civil servants and military personnel associated with the [[British Raj]]. Following World War II, curry became even more popular in Britain owing to the large number of immigrants from South Asia. Curry has become an integral part of British cuisine, so much so that, since the late 1990s, [[chicken tikka masala]] has been referred to as "a true British national dish".

In 1810, the entrepreneur [[Sake Dean Mahomed]], from the [[Bengal Presidency]], opened the first Indian curry house in England: the [[Hindoostanee Coffee House]] in London. Before then, curry had been served in some London [[coffee house|coffee houses]].

The first modern "upscale" Indian restaurant in Britain is thought to have been The Shafi in 1915, followed by [[Veeraswamy]] in London's Regent Street, founded in 1926; the latter is still standing and is the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in Britain.

Bengalis in the UK settled in big cities with industrial employment. In London, they settled in the East End, which for centuries has been the first port of call for many immigrants working in the docks and shipping from east Bengal. Their regular stopover paved the way for food and curry outlets to be opened up catering for an all-male workforce as family migration and settlement took place some decades later. [[Brick Lane]], in the [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets]] is famous for its many curry houses.

Until the early 1970s, more than three-quarters of Indian restaurants in Britain were identified as being owned and run by people of Bengali origin. Most were run by migrants from East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971. Bangladeshi restaurateurs overwhelmingly come from the northeastern division of [[Sylhet Division|Sylhet]]. Until 1998, as many as 85% of curry restaurants in the UK were [[British Bangladeshi]] restaurants, but in 2003 this figure declined to just over 65%. The dominance of Bangladeshi restaurants is generally declining in some parts of London and the further north one travels. In Glasgow, there are more restaurants of Punjabi origin than any other.

In the early 2010s the popularity of the curry house saw a decline. This has been attributed to the sale of this style of food in generic restaurants, increased home cooking of this style of food with easy supermarket availability of ingredients, and [[Modern immigration to the United Kingdom|immigration restrictions brought in from 2008]] making the availability of low-wage chefs and other staff difficult.

Regardless of the ethnic origin of a restaurant's ownership, the menu is influenced by the wider South Asian cuisine, and sometimes cuisines from further afield, such as [[Cuisine of Iran|Persian dishes]].

Better quality restaurants make up new sauces on a daily basis, using fresh ingredients wherever possible and grinding their own spices. More modest establishments may resort to frozen or dried ingredients and pre-packaged spice mixtures.

{{further|Curry}}

Curries in Britain are derived and named partly from India and partly from invention in local Indian restaurants. They vary from mildly-spiced to extremely hot, with names that are to an extent standardised across the country, but are often unknown in India.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto;"  

|+ Range of strengths of British curries

|}

* [[Balti (food)|Balti]] – a style of curry thought to have been developed in [[Birmingham]], traditionally cooked and served in a cast-iron pot called a ''balty''.

* Bhuna – medium, thick sauce, with some vegetables.

* [[Vindaloo]] – generally regarded as the classic "hot" restaurant curry.

* [[Anglo-Indian cuisine]]

* [[The Curry Club]]<!--chaotic family of Wikipedia pages around Pat Chapman-->

{{English cuisine}}

[[Category:Curry in the United Kingdom| ]]

[[Category:British cuisine]]

[[Category:National dishes]]

{{二次利用|date=14 May 2025, at 19:25}}