The story of the dish
Picture a Rajput country house on a December night. The family cook lifts a glowing coal from the fire with tongs, sets it in a little steel bowl on the pot, pours over a spoon of ghee and slams the lid. Smoke curls out at the edges, and the courtyard falls silent. That is laal maas.
The food of the hunt: Rajput nobles hunted in the forests of Rajasthan, and their cooks learned to make wild meat delicious with chillies, garlic and smoke.
- Origin
- Rajput hunting and household kitchens
- Once made with
- Game from the royal hunts
- Now made with
- Goat mutton
- Gentle sibling
- Safed maas, the white mutton
- Wild cousin
- Jungli maas, meat, ghee, chilli and salt
- Why so much chilli: the strong spice masked the gamey taste of wild meat and helped it keep in the heat. That is the usual explanation, and it makes sense.
- From game to mutton: hunting was banned in India in the twentieth century. Today laal maas is made with goat, cooked on the bone.
- A royal dish now: what began over campfires is now served in palace dining rooms and at Rajput family feasts.
- Not everyday food: Rajasthan is largely vegetarian, and in many households meat is cooked only for guests, festivals or a winter Sunday.
- Jungli maas: the oldest version, said to be cooked in hunting camps with only meat, ghee, dried chillies, salt and water. Ask for it in a Rajput home, if they make it.
The Mathania chilli, the heart of laal maas
The village: Mathania lies on the edge of the desert near Jodhpur, and its chillies are sold across Rajasthan.
Why cooks love them: they give a deep, glossy red colour as much as heat, with a fruity, slightly smoky taste.
- From
- Mathania, a village near Jodhpur
- Prized for
- Deep colour and rounded heat
- Buy in
- The spice lanes of Jodhpur and Jaipur
- Substitute
- Kashmiri chillies, with a few hot ones
- Hard to find: true Mathania chillies are less common than they used to be, and many cooks now blend other varieties.
- Our substitute: mild, deep-red Kashmiri chillies for colour, with a handful of hotter dried chillies for bite.
- Buy them whole: whole dried chillies keep their colour and flavour far better than powder. Our shopping guide explains the spice markets.
Ingredients
Mutton: 1 kg of goat on the bone, cut into curry pieces. Shoulder and leg, with some ribs, give the best sauce.
Dried red chillies: 20 to 25 Mathania chillies, or 15 Kashmiri and 5 to 8 hotter ones. Remove the stalks, and some seeds if you want less heat.
Yoghurt: 1 cup of thick full-fat yoghurt, whisked smooth.
- Garlic: 15 to 20 cloves, crushed to a paste. Rajput cooks use a lot.
- Onions: 2 large onions, finely sliced.
- Fat: half a cup of ghee, or mustard oil heated until it smokes and then cooled slightly, as many Rajasthani homes prefer.
- Whole spices: 2 black cardamoms, 4 green cardamoms, 6 cloves, 2 bay leaves and a small piece of cinnamon.
- Ground spices: 2 teaspoons of ground coriander and half a teaspoon of turmeric.
- Salt: about 1 and a half teaspoons, to taste.
- For the dhungar: a small piece of natural charcoal and a teaspoon of ghee.
- To finish: a handful of chopped coriander leaves, and lemon on the side.
Method, step by step
Step 1: soak and grind the chillies
- Soak: cover the dried chillies with hot water for thirty minutes, until soft.
- Grind: blend to a smooth paste with a little of the soaking water. Wash your hands afterwards, and keep them away from your eyes.
Step 2: marinate the mutton
- Mix: coat the mutton with the yoghurt, half the garlic paste, half the chilli paste and the salt.
- Rest: at least two hours, or overnight in the fridge for the best flavour.
Step 3: fry the onions
Heat the fat: in a heavy pot, warm the ghee or smoked mustard oil.
- Add whole spices: cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon, until they swell and smell sweet.
- Fry the onions: stir over medium heat for fifteen to twenty minutes until deep golden brown. Pale onions make a pale curry.
Step 4: add garlic and meat
- Garlic: add the remaining garlic paste and fry for a minute until it smells cooked.
- Meat: add the marinated mutton and turn the heat up. Stir and sear for ten minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot.
Step 5: the bhuna
- Add the rest: the remaining chilli paste, ground coriander and turmeric.
- Cook down: stir often over medium heat for twenty to thirty minutes, until the sauce darkens and the ghee separates and rises, glossy and red. This stage, the bhuna, is where the flavour comes from.
Step 6: slow-cook
Add water: two to three cups of hot water, enough to just cover the meat.
- Simmer: cover and cook on a low flame for one to one and a half hours, stirring now and then, until the meat is tender and comes away from the bone.
- Short cut: a pressure cooker does this in about thirty minutes, though the old cooks would disapprove.
Step 7: the dhungar
Heat a coal: hold a small piece of natural charcoal over a gas flame with tongs until it glows red.
- Smoke: put a small steel bowl or an onion skin on top of the curry, place the coal in it and pour a teaspoon of ghee over it.
- Cover: close the lid at once and leave for five minutes. Remove the coal before serving.
Step 8: rest and serve
- Rest: let it sit for ten minutes. The sauce thickens and the flavours settle.
- Garnish: scatter coriander leaves and serve with lemon on the side.
How to serve it
Bajra roti: thick, hand-patted millet rotis, the classic desert pairing, with a dab of white butter.
Wheat chapati or paratha: if millet is too heavy for you.
- Plain rice: steamed rice softens the heat for anyone new to the dish.
- On the side: sliced raw onion, green chilli, lemon and a bowl of cooling yoghurt or chhach.
- As part of a feast: in Rajput homes laal maas may sit beside dal baati churma, safed maas and a pulao.
- What to drink: a cold lassi or buttermilk tames the fire best. Beer and dark rum are popular choices in palace bars.
A Rajput winter dinner, the way we would host it
Sunset: drinks by the fire
- What: a fire in the courtyard, a few roasted snacks and a glass of something warming as the light goes.
- Music: folk musicians, often Manganiyar or Langa singers in the desert country. Our folk music page explains them.
Eight o'clock: the first dishes
- What: kebabs or small fried snacks, and a soup on the coldest nights.
- The vegetarian side: gatte, ker sangri and kadhi arrive alongside, because not every guest eats meat.
Nine o'clock: the laal maas
- What: the pot comes to the table still smelling of the dhungar, with a basket of hot bajra rotis and white butter.
- With it: safed maas for those who want something gentler, and a pulao.
Late: sweets and saffron milk
- What: churma, a seasonal sweet and a glass of hot saffron milk with almonds.
- And then: a slow walk under the stars, and bed.
Laal maas, safed maas and their cousins
Safed maas
- What it is: the gentle sibling of laal maas, mutton cooked in milk, cream, yoghurt and a paste of cashews or almonds, kept pale.
- Why order it: for anyone who loves the idea of royal Rajasthani food but not the chilli.
Jungli maas
- What it is: the hunting-camp version, with only meat, ghee, dried chillies, salt and water.
- Why it matters: many cooks say it is the ancestor of laal maas.
Mutton saag
- What it is: mutton cooked with spinach and spices, a speciality of Jaisalmer.
- Learn more: our food of Jaisalmer guide describes it.
Mohan maas
- What it is: a rich, milder royal dish of mutton cooked with milk, dried fruit and spices.
- Where: found on some palace and heritage menus, especially at feasts.
Eating meat in Rajasthan: a short etiquette
Ask before you assume: many Rajasthani families, and all Jain families, never cook or eat meat. Do not bring meat into a home without asking.
Days and seasons: many Hindu families avoid meat on certain days of the week and during festivals such as Navratri.
- Most households
- Vegetarian, many strictly
- Meat traditions
- Rajput, Muslim and some other communities
- Vegetarian towns
- Pushkar and some temple towns
- Common pause
- Many families avoid meat during Navratri
- Restaurants: some restaurants are pure vegetarian, and say so on the sign. Others keep separate kitchens or menus.
- Hotels: palace hotels and Rajput country houses serve meat, and they are the best places to try laal maas.
- Our planning: we tell you in advance where meat is and is not served, and pass dietary notes to every kitchen before you arrive.
Where to taste laal maas in Rajasthan
Jaipur's palace dining rooms: the Suvarna Mahal at Rambagh Palace serves laal maas among its royal Rajasthani dishes. Our food of Jaipur guide lists other addresses we trust.
Jodhpur's terraces: dinner at Umaid Bhawan Palace or under the lit walls of Mehrangarh at RAAS Jodhpur. See our food of Jodhpur guide.
- Rajput country houses: family-run forts and estates such as Rohet Garh often cook the household's own recipe for guests. Ask a day ahead.
- A private dinner: we arrange private palace dinners and courtyard meals where a family cook makes laal maas as their grandmother did.
- Learn it yourself: our haveli cooking class can include laal maas, with a trip to the spice market first.
- Vegetarian towns: meat is not served in Pushkar and some temple towns. Plan your laal maas nights elsewhere.
How hot is it, really?
Colour first: good laal maas is about depth of flavour and colour as much as heat. Mathania and Kashmiri chillies are not the hottest chillies in India.
Ask for it milder: any good kitchen will tone it down. Say kam mirch, less chilli, and they will understand.
- But try it once properly: at least one spoonful, as it should be made, is part of the experience.
- Cool it down: yoghurt, buttermilk and plain rice help more than water.
- Tummies: eat laal maas at good restaurants and hotels, not street stalls, and our health and safety guide has general advice on eating well.
Our family's tips
Use meat on the bone: the bone gives the sauce its body. Boneless meat makes a thinner curry.
Brown the onions properly: dark golden, not pale, or the curry will taste sweet and flat.
- Do not rush the bhuna: the ghee must rise red before you add water. That is the sign of a good laal maas.
- Mustard oil, done right: heat it until it smokes, then let it cool a little before adding spices. Raw mustard oil tastes bitter.
- Salt late: check the salt after the slow cook, because the sauce reduces.
- Keep the dhungar short: five minutes is enough. Longer and the smoke becomes bitter.
- Chilli hands: wear gloves when handling the chilli paste, or wash your hands with oil before soap.
What goes wrong, and how to fix it
Brown, not red: too much chilli powder instead of whole soaked chillies gives a dull brown sauce. Use whole chillies for the colour.
Bitter sauce: the garlic or the chilli paste burned. Keep the heat medium during the bhuna and stir often.
- Split yoghurt: cold yoghurt added to a very hot pot can curdle. Marinate in the yoghurt instead, as here, or whisk it well and add it slowly.
- Tough meat: not enough time. Mutton needs a long, slow simmer, and young goat cooks faster than older meat.
- Thin gravy: too much water. Simmer with the lid off for the last fifteen minutes to reduce it.
Taking the flavours home
Whole chillies: buy a few hundred grams of whole dried red chillies in Jodhpur or Jaipur. Ask for Mathania, and accept that the shopkeeper may blend.
Whole spices: black cardamom, cloves and cinnamon from the same shop are far fresher than supermarket jars.
- Buy
- Whole dried red chillies, not powder
- Where
- Spice lanes of Jodhpur and Jaipur
- Pack
- Sealed bags inside a tin
- Check
- Your own country's food import rules
- Ghee: good desi ghee travels well in a sealed jar, though check airline rules for liquids in hand luggage.
- Pack carefully: double-bag everything. Chilli dust in a suitcase is unforgettable, in the wrong way.
- Check the rules: many countries restrict food imports. Declare spices at customs if your country asks you to.
- Ask for the recipe: if a hotel or family cook makes a laal maas you love, ask for their proportions. Most are proud to share.
Make it part of your journey
Jodhpur in winter: the city of Mathania chillies, best between November and February. Read our Jodhpur guide.
- A night in a fort: a Rajput country house, with dinner in the courtyard, is where laal maas tastes most like itself.
- Our food trail: the food trail journey follows Rajasthan's dishes from city to city.
- The whole kitchen: our Rajasthani food guide explains how the desert shaped what Rajasthan eats.