The Cookery Book of the Kandyan Palace
A couple of years ago I came across this post and this follow up by S. Pathiravitane, a Sri Lankan journalist, writing for Living Heritage, an organization dedicated to preserving the island’s culture. They described a real treasure, a court cookbook from 17th or 18th century Sri Lanka. Five copies exist, one in the British Museum, one in Denmark, and three in different temples in Sri Lanka. They were discovered by Dr Sannasgala, the scholar responsible for the Sinhala dictionary for many years, and the basis of his modern edition that includes a lengthy scholarly introduction and copious footnotes from Sri Lankan literature from the 11th century on.
Judging by this lengthy review, some features are common to court cookbooks world wide: worries about food as medicine and poison, etiquette, special utensils, humoral theory. The book is written in verse as I believe was common in South India as well.
There are also some intriguing insights into the cooking, with my comments in parentheses.
- domesticated animals but not wild ones (deer, anteater, porcupine, boar) were prohibited. (How was this connected with, say, Buddhism?)
- the flesh of wild animals might be marinated in yogurt and spiced, then grilled, or it might be marinated and then fried in oil. (Similar, I think to techniques on the Indian subcontinent that Dr. Achaya describes as going back probably a couple of thousand years).
- sea fish was not widely eaten (Such a common phenomenon world wide)
- meat and fish were treated with honey or molasses to remove their smell, a practice that Dr. Sannasgala says ended with the arrival of Portuguese and chile. (Not sure what to make of this).
- asafetida was used, though it is not much used in present day Sri Lanka (presumably to avoid using onions and garlic)
Anyway, I’ve been anticipating some more commentary on this book. I’d love to know whether some of my hypotheses about the use of ingredients, foreign influences thanks to the island’s pivotal position in the Indian Ocean trading system, similarities and differences from South India, etc are sound. Does anyone know of anything more of this in English?
- Two Great Deserts: Sonora and Arabia Deserta
- Dangerous and under-informed recommendations. American veterinarians on the Pew Report
“domesticated animals but not wild ones (deer, anteater, porcupine, boar) were prohibited. (How was this connected with, say, Buddhism?)”
I’m fuzzy on the specifics, but I recall something about it being acceptable to eat the meat of an animal that died of natural or accidental causes.
Yes, Ji-Young, as I understand it, it is being involved in the killing not the eating of flesh that is unacceptable in Buddhism (or at least large parts of it since it’s such a huge and diverse belief system).
Yes, intriguing comments. On the wild meat – this rings a bell and I will have to think about it. Dredge up some stuff from the back-closet of my memory…
Being written in verse might make it easier to memorize by those not or not fully literate. That’s also the case with various texts in Arabic.
I think some of the south Indian cookbooks were also written in verse, though I think they were earlier. And it may also have to do with art forms appropriate to the court (wild guess).
Rachel: I wish there was an English translation of this court cookbook.
It is very interesting to read that the treatment of meat and fish with molasses and honey stopped with the arrival of the chile pepper. I was wondering – could this be because people from geographic areas closer to the equator generally tend to eat hotter food and the liberal use of hot chilies probably made the meat and fish dishes very hot and and the smell became a secondary issue?
A south Indian court book – Manasollasa includes a section on food – Annabhoga. The author of this book is King Someswara III of Western Chalukya Dynasty (1126-1138 A.D.). This book also gives similar details of food preparation. There are some interesting methods of cooking meat in this book (at least this vegetarian thought so)- the body of the pig is covered white cloth and boiled in water till hair is weakened and could be removed quickly. In another method sticky mud is smeared over the body of the pig and burnt with fire of grass spread over it. Similarly goat is covered with dry grass and burnt before coking further.
So do I Ammini. We need a keen Sinhalese-speaking food historian with time on their hands! I also wondered about that sweet/piquant shift and what evidence Dr. Sanngalasa had for attributing it to Portuguese influence. Presumably that means there are some earlier texts.
I also think that perhaps those methods of removing hair are fairly widespread, though I’m not sure. Anyone have any information about this?
It is relatively common to have bans on eating draught animals, so I wonder if domestic means this specifically.
I’m not sure that there is a huge swing away from sweet/piquant to be honest. The earliest description (16th century) in English of a curry (by a Dutchman) is from Sri Lanka and isn’t that far form a modern description.
“Most of their fish is eaten with rice, which they seeth in broth, which they put upon the rice, and is somewhat soure, as if it were sodden in gooseberries, or unripe grapes, but it tasteth well, and is called Carriel which is their daily meat the rice is in stead of bread.”
Even now the local currys et al. are balanced with with a sour element (tamarind/lime). The opinion that chillies are less good then ginger/pepper is odd, given that he latter are also hot elements and commonly used together.
On draft versus domestic, we’ll just have to wait for the translation, I guess.
On the rest, the editor was clearly a fine scholar but his area of expertise was not food and cooking. And I suspect looking at some the web pages about these Sri Lankan scholars that there was also (not surprisingly) a strong political agenda.
Interesting that that the Dutchman sees gooseberries and unripe grapes as the great sour-ers.
In Europe at the time many of the everyday foods would not have been radically different to that seen in Sri Lanka/India.
Compare the 16th century description of Sri Lankan curry:
“Most of their fish is eaten with rice, which they seeth in broth, which they put upon the rice, and is somewhat soure, as if it were sodden in gooseberries, or unripe grapes, but it tasteth well, and is called Carriel which is their daily meat the rice is in stead of bread.”
16th Century English recipe for chicken pie:
“Take youre chekins and season them with a lytle Ginger and salte, and so putte them into your coffin and so put in them barberies, grapes or goose beryes, and half a dyshe of butter…”.
Even more telling is the comments by early 17th century Italian traveller, Pietro della Valle:
“In India they give the name of caril [curry] to certain messes made of butter, with the kernal of coconut (in place of which might be used in our part of the world milk of almonds)”
Really great quotes.
Not exactly history, but when I was a kid and a bird was selected for a meal, after the beheading/bleeding and removal of large feathers, pieces of newspaper were set on fire (held in right hand with bird feet in left hand) and the pair were moved and twisted so that the flames touched all parts of the skin to make the pinfeathers easier to pick out with tweezers. This sounds like the dry grass treatment and with the mud pack pulling the dried mud off might also remove the pinfeathers. (think bikini wax) A similar process would work for furred critters.
I think that the taboo against eating draught animals would serve the same social preservation purpose as the taboo against eating the seed grain (or other seeds) saved for next year’s crops.
Yup, we did something similar. Now what did we use for a flame? May be a candle. And certainly the taboo against eating draft animals would be beneficial during their working lives. But, continuing that line of thought, what did they do with them on death? I bet someone ate them–the poor, vultures
“… beneficial during their working lives. … ” Wouldn’t that be where “… died of natural causes…” comes in?
Today I learned that chilies came from the Americas. Its hard to fathom that chilies weren’t native to Sri Lanka (rather like tomatoes and Italy). You have to wonder how the evolution of loving searingly hot food came to be. I had to spend quite a bit of time in Sri Lanka and even ketchup was unbearably hot, and bar peanuts could raise blisters on your fingers!
Maybe it’s time to bring back recipes in verse….
Intriguing post. Thanks Rachel!
It is likely that the food was still pretty hot, but other spices were used to achieve the effect, the statement by the translator that ginger/pepper were used suggests this. These are both hot spices. Long pepper (Piper longum) is found in Sri Lanka, is very hot and was the usual spice used in many traditions to achieve heat in a dish before chillies were introduced. Even by the Romans. The modern word “Pepper” is derived from the Sanskrit “Pippali”.
Chillies are easier to grow and don’t get mouldy. I’ve bought 5-6 batches of Long Pepper and only one of them was free of a musty taint.
From http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_husk_tomato.html
Food Uses of Mexican Husk Tomato ( or tomatillo)
This species, in contrast with the cape gooseberry, is used more largely as a vegetable than as a dessert fruit,….. In Mexico, it is generally made into a sauce, salsa verde, for meats, alone or together with green chili peppers. Suggestions for use d……stewing, ……cooking with chopped meat, ….. The fruit is an excellent addition to salads and curries.
and for Judith Klinger a detailed explanation on the spice trade and Portuguese involvement:
http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/assets/Gastronomica-Chile%20and%20Spice%20Trade.pdf