The khaki kook book — A Reader’s Guide

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In Category - Historical Cookbooks

Authors: Core, Mary Kennedy, 1863-1951 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2008 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Cooking, Indic; Cookbooks Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 18,059

Reading time 79 min

Text sections 3

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Mary Kennedy Core's 1917 cookbook collects 100 recipes 'mostly from Hindustan,' blending Indian dishes with Americanized adaptations. The preface recounts a collaborative origin with Lilavate Singh, and recipes like Pullao and Baby's Pesh-Pash reveal colonial domesticity and nutritional pragmatism.

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1. Curry Powder. 2. Beef Curry. 3. Chicken Curry. 4. Curry with Curds. 5. Meat Curry with Pastry. 6. Meat Curry with Cabbage. 7. Meat and Split Pea Curry. 8. Massala Fry. 9. Hamburg Steak Curry. 10. Cold Meat Curry. 11. Buffath, or Curry with Vegetables. 12. Buffath of Cold Meat and Vegetables. 13. Fish Curry. 14. Curry from Tinned Salmon, Sardines, or Tuna. 15. Salt Fish Curry. 16. Massala Fry of Fish. 17. Egg Curry. 18. Poached Egg Curry. 19. Eggplant Curry. 20. Curried Stuffed Eggplant. 21. Stuffed Curried Mango Peppers. 22. Mixed Vegetable Curry. 23. Split Pea Curry. 24. Edible Leaves Curry.

CHAPTER II. SAVORY DISHES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES 30

25. Mulligatawney Soup. 26. Tamales (Mexican). 27. Koorma (Arabian). 28. Spiced Beef. 29. Irish Stew (Old English). 30. Mesopotamia Stew. 31. French Stew. 32. Turkish Stew. 33. All Blaze. 34. Country Captain. 35. Toad in Hole. 36. Minced Meat Patties. 37. Hamburg Cutlets. 38. Potato Patties with Fish or Meat. 39. Beef Olives. 40. Bird Nests. 41. Eggplant Patties. 42. Spanish Steak. 43. Spanish Welsh Rarebit. 44. Kabobs. 45. Char-chiz. 46. Spanish Eggs.

CHAPTER III. SPLIT PEAS OR DAL 43

47. Split Pea Soup. 48. Dal Soup with Milk. 49. Kidgeri. 50. Armenian Kidgeri. 51. Dal Bhat.

52. Plain Boiled Rice. 53. Pesh-Pash. 54. Pullao. 55. Beef or Mutton Pullao. 56. Spanish Rice. 57. Pea Pullao. 58. Cocoanut Rice. 59. Meat and Rice Hash. 60. Rice Cutlets. 61. Fried Rice (Parsi).

62. Potato Bujea. 63. Banana Bujea. 64. Summer Squash Bujea. 65. Cabbage Bujea. 66. Radish Bujea. 67. Tomato Bujea.

CHAPTER VI. BREADS 57

68. Chupatties. 69. Chupatties (Americanized). 70. Prahatas. 71. Potato Puris. 72. White Flour Puris. 73. Sweet Potato Puris.

CHAPTER VII. PICKLES AND CHUTNEYS 61

74. Kausaundi Pickle (Americanized).

CHAPTER VIII. CHUTNEY 63

75. Lemon Chutney. 76. Apple Chutney. 77. Rhubarb Chutney. 78. Carrot Pickle. 79. Mixed Vegetable Pickle.

CHAPTER IX. MOST EVERYTHING 66

80. Puff Paste. 81. Cheese Cakes. 82. Banana Stew with Cocoanut. 83. Roselle Jelly. 84. Roselle Sauce. 85. Tipparee Jam. 86. Orange Marmalade. 87. Orange Jelly. 88. Candied Grapefruit Peel. 89. Banana Cheese. 90. Carrot Cheese. 91. Fruit Cheese. 92. Fools. 93. Jellabies. 94. Gulab Jamans. 95. Malpuas. 96. Crow's Nest Fritters. 97. Hulwa. 98. Bombay Hulwa. 99. Turkish Delight. 100. Frosted Bananas. 101. Sujee Puffs. 102. Breadcrumb Balls. 103. Sujee Biscuits.

Many regard curry as one of the new things in cookery. This is a mistake. Curry is an old, old method of preparing meats and vegetables. Nor is it an East Indian method exclusively. In all Oriental and tropical countries foods are highly seasoned, and although the spices may differ, and although the methods of preparation may not be the same, nevertheless, generally speaking, the people of all Oriental countries freely indulge in curried food.

However, in India curry reaches its perfection. The people of India since Vedic times have eaten curry and always will. They eat it very, very hot, and Europeans who live in India soon find themselves falling into the habit of eating very hot and spicy foods. Whether it is good for one to eat as much hot stuff as one is expected to eat in India is a disputed point. In moderation, however, curry is not harmful, and is a very satisfactory and appetizing way of preparing scrappy and inexpensive meats. If carefully prepared, everybody is sure to like it. Do not introduce it, however, to your family as a mustard-colored stew of curry powder, onions, and cold meat served in the center of a platter with a wall of gummy rice enclosing it. Most of the family would hate it, and it would be difficult to get them to the point of even tasting it again. Curry, as usually made in India, is not made with curry powder at all. Every Indian cook-house is provided with a smooth black stone about a foot and a half long and a foot wide. There is also a small stone roller. On this large stone, by means of the small stone, daily are crushed or ground the spices used in making curry. The usual ingredients are coriander seeds and leaves, dried hot chilies or peppers, caraway seeds, turmeric, onions, garlic, green ginger, and black pepper grains. All these are first crushed a little and then ground to a paste, with the addition from time to time of a little water.

Now of course no American housewife would want to squat on the floor and grind up curry stuff on a stone, as do the women of India. So I hasten to say that very good curry may be made from curry powder. Curry powder may be obtained from almost any grocer. The best in the market is Cross & Blackwell's.

A good plan, however, would be to make your own curry powder. It is better, much cheaper, and is very little trouble to make.

The following formula is excellent:

10 ounces of coriander seed; 1 teaspoon of caraway seed; 1 teaspoon of black pepper; 1 teaspoon of red pepper; 6 teaspoons of turmeric; 4 tablespoons of flour; 1 teaspoon of cloves; 4 teaspoons of cinnamon; Seeds of six cardamons.

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Mary Kennedy Core's The Khaki Kook Book (1917) presents itself as a practical collection of one hundred 'cheap and practical recipes mostly from Hindustan,' but its preface and recipe notes reveal a more layered document. The book originated in Almora, a Himalayan station, during a summer when Core and Lilavate Singh planned a joint Hindustani-English cookbook. Though the project was shelved for years, Core acknowledges that many recipes derive from Singh's contributions, 'Americanized' over time. The volume thus sits at a crossroads of culinary exchange and colonial domesticity.

A Preface of Place and Partnership

The preface grounds the book in a specific time and place: Almora, 'a station far up in the Himalayas,' with 'deodar-covered slopes' and 'glistening peaks of the eternal snows.' Core credits Lilavate Singh for the Hindustani recipes, noting that Singh prepared 'a tiffin of delicious Hindustani food' that sparked the project. Yet Core also admits the recipes have become 'quite Americanized,' and Singh 'might not recognize' them. This tension between origin and adaptation is central to the book's character.

The preface includes a story about an ayah singing 'Ky a ke waste, pet ke waste' ('For why? For stomach?'), which Core interprets as a reductive philosophy of life. The anecdote reveals a colonial perspective even as it celebrates Indian culinary knowledge.

Rice, Nutrition, and Economy

Core devotes considerable attention to rice preparation, describing two methods: the 'cold water process' that yields separate grains but loses nutrients, and a 'rice boiler' method that retains nutrition. She notes that in India, 'every ounce of rice water is carefully saved' for babies, ducks, or curry. This practical observation contrasts with the wastefulness she implies in Western kitchens.

Recipe 53, 'Baby's Pesh-Pash,' is described as 'the first solid food that babies of English or American parents in India are allowed.' Made from mutton broth and rice, it is 'very good for the convalescent.' The recipe explicitly addresses a colonial audience adapting to local ingredients.

Pullao as Festive Centerpiece

Core calls Pullao 'the most festive dish in India,' equating it with roast turkey in American tradition. She notes its role at weddings, feasts, and among 'Hindustani Christians' at Christmas. The recipe for Chicken Pullao involves stewing the fowl with a bag of 'mixed spices,' frying rice with onions, and garnishing with almonds, raisins, and cocoanut. A cheaper version uses 'the cheapest cuts of beef or mutton.'

The instructions emphasize technique: using a rice boiler to avoid sogginess, and retaining the spice bag. Core's tone is instructional but assumes a reader familiar with basic cookery. The inclusion of both chicken and beef/mutton versions suggests adaptation to available resources.

Readers should approach The Khaki Kook Book as a document of its time: a colonial cookbook that both borrows from and domesticates Indian culinary practices. The recipes are practical but filtered through Core's perspective as an American missionary or expatriate in India. The book's value lies not in authenticity but in its record of cultural negotiation—how one woman adapted Hindustani dishes for a Western kitchen while preserving traces of their origin.

Mary Kennedy Core’s Khaki Kook Book always made me think of patience—the slow simmer of a Pullao waiting for hungry soldiers. Beside it on my shelf sits Faster Ways to Favorite Dishes With the New Minute Tapioca — Reading Notes, and I catch them whispering. One teaches waiting, the other hurried ease, yet both share that wartime earnestness, that quiet hope of feeding someone well.