Reading Ghee in Daniel Santiagoe's 1889 Cookbook

By Faimly Farm · 23 October 2026 · Prepared with AI assistance.

An old cookbook can show how one author described an ingredient; it cannot, by itself, establish what every household cooked. Daniel Santiagoe's The Curry Cook's Assistant offers a specific place to practise that distinction when reading about ghee.

Identify the edition before drawing a conclusion

The digitised text of Santiagoe's book reproduces a title page identifying a third edition published in London by Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. in 1889. Its subtitle addresses making curries in England. Those details locate the text's stated audience and edition; the date of an online transcription is a different date.

Two places to read closely

In numbered recipe 57, the ingredient list offers “Butter or Ghee”. Later, a Tamil-and-English ingredient list, described in the book as usage in Ceylon, pairs ghee with the spelling “Naie”. Both observations come from the linked primary text.

The first passage records an option within one recipe. It does not say that the two ingredients are identical in every dish. The second records this book's spelling and presentation; it should not be turned into a claim about every speaker's present-day usage.

Keep observation and interpretation in different columns

When making your own reading notes, use a short two-column record:

This is a suggested reading method, not a historical finding. Save the book title, edition and location of the passage beside each note. If a later family recollection differs, preserve both accounts with their own attribution instead of silently rewriting one to fit the other.

Keep the modern kitchen separate

This article is a reading exercise, not an instruction to reproduce the book's cooking or storage practices. It does not identify a historical animal breed, certify an A2 source or claim a connection between the author and Faimly Farm.

If you are choosing a contemporary ingredient for a separate regular-ghee recipe, Danedar Cow Ghee belongs to the regular cow-ghee range. That catalogue link is a present-day product reference, not evidence about the 1889 text.

Quick questions

Does one printed recipe prove a national tradition?

No. Phrase the observation narrowly and look for additional, independently attributed sources before making a wider claim.

Should I modernise an unfamiliar word in my notes?

Keep the original spelling in a clearly marked quotation, then add your explanation separately. That preserves what the source actually says.

For handling a family document, see digitising an old ghee recipe card. Browse Heritage & Society.

Article prepared with AI assistance. Banner: AI-generated editorial illustration, not a photograph of a product pack, kitchen test, official record or historical artefact. No firsthand testing is claimed. Visit the Faimly Farm Journal.