The Forme of Cury(en.wikipedia.org)
en.wikipedia.org
The Forme of Cury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forme_of_Cury
2 comments
Also highly recommended - the British Food History Podcast (and companion blog), with the aptly named Dr. Neil Buttery. Here's the episode about Forme of Cury.
https://britishfoodhistory.com/tag/forme-of-cury/
https://britishfoodhistory.com/tag/forme-of-cury/
"curry" meaning "cooking" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curry
There is a (disputed) story that curry was used as a dismissive way to refer to Indian food ("just cooking"), which then became used to refer to Indian food.
There is a (disputed) story that curry was used as a dismissive way to refer to Indian food ("just cooking"), which then became used to refer to Indian food.
It's just a contraction of cookery, much like Wooster is a contraction of Worcestshire. Just throw out the unneeded, middle syllables.
Could this be where "to curry favor" comes from? Where curry, in it's "to cook" form basically means "to make"? So like "to cook up some favor" as "to generate favor"
Wiktionary has a different etymology: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/curry_favor#English
Curry used in the sense you're using it is derived from the Tamil word for "sauce".
https://www.youtube.com/@TastingHistory