The use of curry powder in cooking, and even the very existence of curry powder, is a direct result of the vast British Empire. British overlords enjoyed the cuisine of India, and wanted to take some of that back home with them. And to other British colonies around the world, including those in America. But curry powder is not a thing in India. Curry powder is a blend of spices that provided a shortcut to cooks in far-flung places trying to improve their cooking with exotic Indian flavor.
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The expense of shipping spices to the colonies, and to Britain, was probably the primary reason why blended, pre-made curry powder became common. Although there has never been a set combination of spices that goes into curry powder, the British commercialized and sold spice blends under that broad rubric since at least 1784. Not everyone could afford to buy the individual spices and make their own blends. And while Brits in colonial India had servants to freshly grind spices and select the right combinations for each dish, the average home cook in London or Virginia often leaned on one commercial curry powder (and swapped in more familiar techniques and ingredients, such as butter in place of ghee) for all their curries.
Imported spices found their way into every corner of the world, but when people from India settled into those places, they rebelled against the use of curry powder as oversimplified, inauthentic, and downright degrading to the ancient cuisine it is supposed to recreate. Read about curry powder and how it took over the world at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Michael Francis McCarthy)
Source: neatorama