A treasure trove of recipes from Jahangir's royal kitchen

Food historian Salma Yusuf Husain has translated a 17th century Persian manuscript with 120 rare recipes

- Jahnabee Borah

In 2002, eminent Persian scholar Salma Yusuf Husain was going through a catalogue of books from the Mughal period at the National Archives of India in New Delhi, looking for accounts of Mughal cuisine. She chanced upon a 17th-century manuscript, Alwan-e-Nemat, a cookbook from Mughal emperor Jahangir's royal kitchen. It was a treasure trove of 374 unique recipes.

Husain began translating it and trying some of the recipes while simultaneously working on multiple books highlighting Mughal cuisine.

“Mughal food is a topic that fascinates me, because one finds variations of Mughal-influenced dishes across restaurants, but no one truly knows the intricacies of the cuisine. Mughal dishes are not supposed to be dunked in oil and spices. You are meant to taste the meats and ingredients,” she explains.

During the Mughal period from the 16th to the 19th century, spices were used sparingly and the flavour of each ingredient was sacrosanct. The 79-year-old author has written 11 books focusing on diverse aspects of this subject to feed her curiosity as well as explain what Mughal cuisine actually tasted like.