The native cuisine of Punjab
An analysis of the native cuisine of Punjab before global trade and how Patiala state attempted to replicate it.
Before the discovery of the Americas to the Old World and the establishment of global trade, Punjabi cuisine would’ve been vastly different without tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tea and corn. All these ingredients were introduced to India due to Portuguese influence in Goa and other port cities and slowly spread upwards to Punjab.
The native cuisine of Punjab
The native cuisine of Punjab was largely dairy and grains-based alongside grams, meat, pickles and a few seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Even today, Punjabi cuisine is largely influenced by dairy. Until perhaps the Green Revolution, diets were mostly comprised of large milk, curds, paneer and yoghurt consumption to ensure sufficient protein without meat.
The consumption of meat in Punjabi diets was low for two main reasons: the influence of Vaishnavism and scarcity. The influence of Vaishnavism stopped meat consumption in urban areas and large parts of East Punjab. However, around of the hinterlands of Punjab such the Bar tribes, meat consumption was quite common and the only difficulty here would be due to scarcity of meat, where it was eaten as a luxury. The typical meats in Punjab included wild birds such as batair (quail), titar (partridge), murgi (chicken) and jangli murgi (grey junglefowl), alongside bakra (goat) and jangli soor (wild boar). In areas adjourning large rivers such as Amritsar, fish like thela (carp) and mori (white carp) are part of the cuisine.
Seasonal vegetables would make up a substantial part of the diet too, with crops like karela (bitter gourd), sarson (mustard seeds), baingan (aubergine), matar (peas), bhindi (okra), tori (Chinese okra), with seasonal fruits like amla (gooseberry) and amb (mango). These vegetables and fruits would be pickled to ensure for long-term preservation.
Grains like jowar (sorghum) and bajra (millet) would comprise most of the wheat consumption before kanak (common wheat) was readily grown in Punjab. Alongside these grains, grams like lentils and chickpeas would be a staple of Punjabi diet.
Patiala high cuisine
The chefs of Patiala state took it upon themselves to create a cuisine heavily influenced by native Punjabi cuisine. Patiala high cuisine contained many seasonal dishes and locally grown vegetables native to Malwa, such as the gullar (cluster fig) and tar (Armenian cucumber). The high cuisine of Patiala had influences from Rampuri cuisine, which also had a large indigenous element to it. Due to old Gurmukhi manuscripts from the royal Patiala archives, the recipes that comprise royal Patiala cuisine are known today.
The vegetable dishes that feature in Patiala cuisine, contain native vegetables such as bitter gourd, turnips and aubergine. All of these are among the seasonal vegetables which featured frequently in Punjabi cuisine before the advent of the potato and the tomato.
The meat dishes also are all native, including quails, wild boar and chicken. From both these dishes, we can see the chefs of Patiala were able to replicate how Punjabi cuisine appeared before contact with the New World was established.
Although the tomato and potato are widely used in Punjabi cuisine, there are still many examples of dishes without New World ingredients such as saag, daal and paneer-based dishes. Tomatoes as a base ingredient only feature prominently within Punjabi cuisine of restaurants such butter chicken, tandoori chicken and paneer tikka masala. We can conclude that potatoes and tomatoes, as New World crops, may’ve been seen as luxuries similar to how meat was seen until very recently. The proliferation of new farming methods, alongside British influence on farming such as introducing crops like the cauliflower to Punjab, could’ve increased the supply of tomatoes and potatoes, making them more common.