Tamrap Sai Yaowapa (ตำหรับสายเยาวภา)
M.R. Tuang Sanitwong (ม.ร.ว.เตื้อง สนิทวงศ์) | 1935 | Royal Siamese Cooking and Food for the Sick
Siamese Recipe Archive — Heritage Collection

Tamrap Sai Yaowapa (ตำหรับสายเยาวภา) was published in 1935 as the cremation volume of Princess Yaovabha Bongsanid (พระเจ้าบรมวงศ์เธอ พระองค์เจ้าเยาวภาพงศ์สนิท, 1884–1934), a daughter of King Chulalongkorn. Prince Chainat Narenthon (กรมขุนชัยนาทนเรนทร) bestowed the book’s name and said it would stand as an important treatise of benefit to students thereafter.

The volume holds 195 recipes together with chapters on the meaning of cooking terms, seasonings and ingredients, the arrangement of food, livestock and game meats, fish, vegetables, the cleaning of meats, household meal plans, and a treatise on eggs. Four further chapters set out what the book calls kitchen science (วิทยาศาสตร์การครัว): the classification of foods, animal foods, plant foods, and the pungent foods, seasonings and oils.

The recipes hold the Siamese royal kitchen of the 1930s at the moment Western and Chinese methods were entering it. A clear stock simmered two hours and strained to keep as a base. Beef and shallots sealed in a lidded pot and cooked six hours over a double boiler, recorded as American Soup (ซุบอเมริกัน; soop a maeh ri gan). Sago pearls boiled into chicken broth until clear. A family of sandwiches and composed savories sits alongside the curries, the yam, the nam phrik and the miang.

Measurements appear as the contributors wrote them, in the household units of the period. Many recipes give no quantities at all. The archive preserves those silences as they stand.

Cooking for the Sick

The Princess was often unwell as a child. King Chulalongkorn had her brought to live at the palace of Prince Sai Sanitwong (พระองค์เจ้าสายสนิทวงศ์) at Pomprap Sattruphai (ป้อมปราบศัตรูพ่าย) beside Krung Kasem Road (ถนนกรุงเกษม), on the ground where Saipanya School stands today. Prince Sai was the King’s personal physician and head of the department of royal physicians (กรมหมอหลวง), and her grandfather.

There her grandmother M.C. Kaesorn Sanitwong (หม่อมเจ้าหญิงเกษร สนิทวงศ์), known as Khrok Tao (ครอกเต่า), gave care to grandfather and granddaughter alike by preparing meals from ingredients whose properties suited the strengthening of the body, some of which served as medicine in themselves. The Princess saw the results of that care and took up the practice herself. When a royal relative fell ill she prepared food in her grandfather’s manner, at times adapting a dish by her own design, and presented it again and again at table. The preface records that this made her beloved among the senior royal relatives.

She traveled by water with Prince Sai to the South and to the North on several occasions. The preface credits those journeys with the disposition of kindness she showed to the people she met.

The Book and Its Makers

The compilation was collective work with named hands. M.R. Tuang Sanitwong received the incoming recipes and gathered them. M.L. Tiu Chonlamakphichan (ม.ล. ติ๋ว ชลมารคพิจารณ์) and Khunying Sihasak Sanitwong (คุณหญิงสีหศักดิ์ สนิทวงศ์) sorted the dishes by category and kind, wrote the explanations of technique and handwork by which food is arranged and prepared correctly, and described the various ingredients used in cooking. Mom Sanitwong Seni (หม่อมสนิทวงศ์เสนีย์), M.R. Tan Sanitwong (ม.ร.ว. ตัน สนิทวงศ์), wrote the detailed technical account of the properties of those ingredients.

Phraya Sihasak Sanitwong signed the preface on 17 May 1935 (พ.ศ. ๒๔๗๘) and dedicated the merit of the book to the Princess, recalling the regard in which Queen Savang Vadhana (สมเด็จพระศรีสวรินทราบรมราชเทวี พระพันวัสสา) had held her from her youth to the end of her life.

The 195 recipes are grouped by dish family:

  • Soups and clear broths
  • Curries
  • Grilled, roasted and baked dishes
  • Stir-fries
  • Yam, koi, phla and salads
  • Nam phrik, lohn and relishes
  • Miang and wrapped bites
  • Sandwiches and composed savories
  • Rice dishes
  • Noodles
  • Egg cookery
  • Sweets and desserts
  • Preserved, pickled and set dishes
  • Other dishes

The reference chapters follow: the meaning of cooking terms, important things to know, seasonings and ingredients, miscellany, arranging food, livestock and game meats, fish, vegetables, the cleaning of meats, kitchen science in four parts, household meal plans, and the treatise on eggs.

Index of Recipes

Dtohm Jiu Beef Soup
Dtohm Jiu Beef Soup (แกงต้มจิ๋ว; gaaeng dtohm jiu)
Dtohm Jiu Beef Soup: sirloin simmered soft with sweet potato, soured with tamarind, finished with bird's eye chili and lime. Tamrap Sai Yaowapa, 1935.
Pork Stomach Soup (แกงกะเพาะหมู; gaaeng ga phaw muu)
Pork Stomach Soup (แกงกะเพาะหมู; gaaeng ga phaw muu)
Gaaeng ga phaw muu: pork stomach and chicken broth built in two stages with a fried coriander-root pounding. Tamrap Sai Yaowapa, 1935.
แกงไส้กรอกหมูแห้ง
c1935 Princess Yaovabha's Sweet Chinese Sausage in Coconut Cream Soup (แกงไส้กรอกหมูแห้ง; gaaeng sai graawk muu haaeng)
A 1935 Thai palace recipe preserving Princess Yaovabha's Chinese sausage coconut curry. This ivory-colored soup features sweet goon chiang sausage in creamy coconut with lemongrass, kaffir lime, and tamarind. The dish represents a historic culinary shift when Chinese ingredients entered royal Thai kitchens, transforming from street food to palace cuisine.
c1935 Stuffed Potatoes with Bitter Orange Fragrant Beef Gaaeng Garee (แกงกะหรี่บรรจุมัน ม.ล. เติบ กำภู ; gaaeng garee ban joo man)
In Anglo-Indian cuisine, potatoes were used liberally in the curries; alongside the favorite sour chutneys, curries were also accompanied by fried, baked, boiled or mashed potatoes. Although the potato gradually found its way into many iconic Indian dishes, and even into Siamese cuisine, the tuber never replaced the rice of South Asia, despite the intentions of both the British and East Indian company officials. In the 1935 book Sai Yaowapa (ตำรับสายเยาวภา), Princess Yaovabha Bongsanid (พระเจ้าบรมวงศ์เธอ พระองค์เจ้าเยาวภาพงศ์สนิท) reflects the Anglo-Indian style gaaeng garee in her composition of bitter orange-fragrant beef gaaeng garee, which she serves in individual bowls made of fried potatoes, per a recipe recorded by M.L. Terb Gamphu (ม.ล. เติบ กำภู) and M.R. Tuang Sanitwong (ม.ร.ว.เตื้อง สนิทวงศ์).

About the Siamese Recipe Archive

The Siamese Recipe Archive holds Thai culinary manuscripts as primary historical evidence. Every recipe is published with the original Thai text beside a direct translation, with period units and the contributors’ own spellings carried through as written. Where a manuscript omits a quantity or a step, the omission is preserved and marked as an omission.

Get a Free copy of my eBook "49 Classic Thai Stir Fry Dishes"

Subscribe to our newsletter that will keep you up to date with stories and events taking place at Thaifoodmaster!