A recipe book discovered by monks and believed to contain the oldest known recipe for an English curry was written in Bristol.
The antique cookbook from 1793 contains a recipe for a spicy chicken dish and was written at Begbrook House in Frenchay.
The book was later donated to Downside Abbey in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Midsomer Norton in North East Somerset, by the Parsons family, where it has recently rediscovered by monks.
Historians have now turned the Georgian-era recipes, of which the curry is one, into a modern day cookery book.
They include meals such as 'calves head turtle fashion' and 'fricassee of pigs’ feet and ears'.
Although not widely available at the time, the recipe for chicken curry contains spices and curry powder.
It was only because of Bristol’s position in the ‘slave trade triangle’ that such ingredients could be found in the city.
The quantities and cooking times in the book are vague – thought to be because there were no standard temperatures for cooking at the time.
Frances Bircher, heritage officer at Downside Abbey, said: “We have made a huge amount of different recipes and tasted them. At the time, Bristol would have had ships that would have been part of the ‘triangle’.
“There is a range of ingredients - there are things you can still pick up in supermarkets today, and there is a lot of veal which seems less acceptable.
“There’s calf head, and pigs ears and feet. The chicken curry recipe is chicken breast and curry powder.
“It is a bit more normal. Lots of the recipes you can make today. Some of them are a bit more extreme - the whole animal was used, it is quite an efficient way of cooking.
“All the recipes need a bit of attention as there are no standardised cooking temperatures. A lot of the houses would have had their own cook books and if a member of the family went to visit another house and enjoyed a meal, they might bring it back in the book.”
“It was an unusual find in a monastery in the heart of Somerset,” she added.
The Original Recipe
Three spoonfuls of curry powder
Two spoonfuls of rice
A tea-spoonful of salt
Two large onions
Take an ounce of butter and make it hot in your stew pan, put to it about two spoonfuls of rice pounded fine, a teaspoonful of salt and three of curry powder.
With a little veal gravy, boil it up and cut them fricasee fashion and fry them in butter with two large onions thin.
Put them to the other ingredients and let it all stew to tender before you take it off put in the rind of a lemon rubbed in salt and the juice of a large one. A small bit of Indian pickle will improve it.
Do Lobster, Veal or Rabbit the same way.