Indian cookbooks

Tastes (rasa) are classified into six types known as shadrasa according to their qualities for an ideal meal: sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent.

[14] A chapter in Sushruta Samhita is dedicated to dining etiquette, methods of serving food, and the proper placement of each dish before the diner.

[14] Sangam literature offers references to food and recipes during this era, whether for a feast at a king's palace, meals in towns or the countryside, or in forest hamlets and the rest-houses travels visit.

The poet Avvaiyar, for example, describes her hearty summer lunch as "steamed rice, smoked and mashed aubergine, and tangy, frothy buttermilk," while the poet Mudathama Kanniyar describes "Skewered goat meat, crispy fried vegetables, rice and over 16 varieties of dishes" as part of the royal lunch he was treated to in the palace of the Chola king.

It deals with methods of cooking rice, lentils, pulses, barely, wheat, vegetables, leafy greens, shoots, roots, and flowers.

[14] This notable text was compiled during the rule of the Chalukya king Someshvara III in 1130 CE, and contains recipes for vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.

[18] It has been suggested that Vaddaradhane, the Kannada text of Jain Acharya Sivakoti written in 920 CE, contains what may be the earliest mention of Idali, followed by Manasollasa.

It explains both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food preparation and provides details about several methods for cooking rice, meat, legumes, pulses, vegetables, fruits, refreshments, beverages, and milk products.

Among non-vegetarian recipes, it includes boar, lamb, goat, venison, rabbit, wild and domesticated pigs, game birds, peacocks, fish, and tortoise.

The treatises like Kṣemakutūhala of Kṣemaśarman and Pākadarpaṇa of Naḷa, which exclusively discuss the topics of dietetics and culinary art, are introduced in the third chapter.

Bhojana Kutuhala records and credits many earlier culinary cookbooks like: It also mentions several important treatises, including Paroygaparijata, Kriyasara Vaidyakasabdasindhu, and Hrdayadipaand Vyanjanavarga.

[27] Under the Turkic Sultanate and Mughal period, several new foods were introduced like samosas, naan, yahni, korma, kebab, keema, halva, haleem, and Jalebi.

[28] The Ni'matnama is a collection of the recipes written during the rule of the Malwa Sultanate, Ghiyath Shahi, and his son and successor, Nasir Shah.