Mutton cooked in ghee and yoghurt with a great many dried red chillies, garlic and whole spice — fiery, deep red and often smoky.
What makes it laal maas
Mutton or goat on the bone.
Dried red chillies in quantity, soaked and ground.
Ghee, yoghurt and plenty of garlic; often smoked with a coal.
Where it comes from
Laal maas means red meat, and the red is chilli: it's famously hot. It's the best known of the Rajput hunting dishes — once, the story goes, made with game such as wild boar or deer, now with mutton or goat. It's often credited to Mewar, but kitchens across Rajasthan claim it.
The chilli is traditionally Mathania, a long red chilli grown near Jodhpur, prized for deep colour and real heat. Many cooks finish the pot with dhungar — a hot coal and a drop of ghee, sealed in for smoke.
How it varies
Safed maas
Its white counterpart: cashews, cream and yoghurt, no red chilli.
Jungli maas
The hunter's version, said to be cooked with little more than meat, ghee, chilli and salt.