Makers · Kodagu first
These three kitchens opened the pantry. India's masala trade still hides the women who roast, dry, and pound. We do not. Each tin is a person, a village, a stone — from any state that still makes it that way.
Madikeri · Kodagu
Kartha masala — Coorg meat masala
“The Coorg meat masala carries her name.”
Susheela Appaji of Madikeri is the maker of this Coorg meat masala. The tin is hers. We do not put another woman's name on her work.
Read her story
Kutta · South Kodagu
Kachampuli — Coorg vinegar
“You cannot hurry fruit that fell in the rain. The bottle is the year you waited.”
South of the district, where Kodagu leans into the forest around Kutta, the panapuli trees drop their fruit after the first real monsoon. Subbi walks the estate edge at dawn and gathers what has fallen — never what still hangs. The fruit is Garcinia gummi-gutta, cousin to kokum, wild and sour.
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Madikeri · Kodagu
Paringe mollu — bird-eye chilli powder
“These are not market chillies. They are the ones that grow behind the house and bite without asking.”
Poovamma grows paringe mollu — bird-eye chilli, Capsicum annuum, the small fierce ones that Kodava kitchens keep in a jar by the stove and drop whole into pork, fish, and eggs. Her plot sits behind a house on the Madikeri side, looking toward the ghats, a tangle of thin stems and fruit the colour of lacquer.
Read her storyNext
If a kitchen in your family still makes masala the old way, send it. We choose a few. If we take it on, we pay a royalty and print the cook's name.
Bring a recipe