Chapter CURNUM to CURRY of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

resembling broth, as several of the earlier quotations indicate. Europeans have applied it to all the savoury concoctions of analogous spicy character eaten with rice. These may be divided into three classes—viz. (1), that just noticed; (2), that in the form of a stew of meat, fish or vegetables; (3), that called by Europeans ‘dry curry.’ These form the successive courses of a Hindu meal in S. India, and have in the vernaculars several discriminating names.

In Java the Dutch, in their employment of curry, keep much nearer to the original Hindu practice. At a breakfast, it is common to hand round with the rice a dish divided into many sectoral spaces, each of which contains a different kind of curry, more or less liquid.

According to the Fankwae at Canton (1882), the word is used at the Chinese ports (we presume in talking with Chinese servants) in the form kaarle (p. 62).

1502.—“Then the Captain-major commanded them to cut off the hands and ears of all the crews, and put all that into one of the small vessels, into which he ordered them to put the friar, also without ears or nose or hands, which he ordered to be strung round his neck with a palm-leaf for the King, on which he told him to have a curry (caril) made to eat of what his friar brought him.”—Correa, Three Voyages, Hak. Soc. 331. The “Friar” was a Brahman, in the dress of a friar, to whom the odious ruffian Vasco da Gama had given a safe-conduct.

1563.—“They made dishes of fowl and flesh, which they call caril.”—Garcia, f. 68.

c. 1580.—“The victual of these (renegade soldiers) is like that of the barbarous people; that of Moors all bringe [birinj, ‘rice’]; that of Gentoos rice-carril.”—Primor e Honra, &c., f. 9v.

1598.—“Most of their fish is eaten with rice, which they seeth in broth, which they put upon the rice, and is somewhat soure, as if it were sodden in gooseberries, or unripe grapes, but it tasteth well, and is called Carriel [v.l. Carriil], which is their daily meat.”—Linschoten, 88; [Hak. Soc. ii. 11]. This is a good description of the ordinary tamarind curry of S. India.

1606.—“Their ordinary food is boiled rice with many varieties of certain soups which they pour upon it, and which in those parts are commonly called caril.”—Gouvea, 61b.

1608–1610.—“…me disoit qu’il y auoit plus de 40 ans, qu’il estoit esclaue, et auoit gagné bon argent à celuy qui le possedoit; et toute fois qu’il ne luy donnoit pour tout viure qu’vne mesure de riz cru par iour sans autre chose…et quelquefois deux baseruques, qui sont quelque deux deniers (see BUDGROOK), pour auoir du Caril à mettre auec le riz.”—Mocquet, Voyages, 337.

1623.—“In India they give the name of caril to certain messes made with butter, with the kernel of the coco-nut (in place of which might be used in our part of the world milk of almonds)…with spiceries of every kind, among the rest cardamom and ginger…with vegetables, fruits, and a thousand other condiments of sorts;…and the Christians, who eat everything, put in also flesh or fish of every kind, and sometimes eggs…with all which things they make a kind of broth in the fashion of our guazzetti (or hotch-potches)…and this broth with all the said condiments in it they pour over a good quantity of rice boiled simply with water and salt, and the whole makes a most savoury and substantial mess.”—P. della Valle, ii. 709; [Hak. Soc. ii. 328.]

1681.—“Most sorts of these delicious Fruits they gather before they be ripe, and boyl them to make Carrees, to use the Portuguese word, that is somewhat to eat with and relish their Rice.”—Knox, p. 12. This perhaps indicates that the English curry is formed from the Port. caris, plural of caril.

c. 1690.—“Curcuma in Indiâ tam ad cibum quam ad medecinam adhibetur, Indi enim…adeo ipsi adsueti sunt ut cum cunctis admiscent condimentis et piscibus, praesertim autem isti quod karri ipsis vocatur.”—Rumphius, Pars Vta. p. 166.

c. 1759–60.—“The currees are infinitely various, being a sort of fricacees to eat with rice, made of any animals or vegetables.”—Grose, i. 150.

1781.—“To- day have curry and rice for my dinner, and plenty of it as C—, my messmate, has got the gripes, and cannot eat his share.”—Hon. J. Lindsay’s Imprisonment, in Lives of Lindsays, iii. 296.

1794–97.—
Pursuits of Literature, 5th ed., p. 287.

This shows that curry was not a domesticated dish in England at the date of publication. It also is a sample of what the wit was that ran through so many editions!

c. 1830.—“J’ai substitué le lait à l’eau pour boisson…c’est une sorte de contre-poison pour l’essence de feu que forme la sauce enragée de mon sempiternal cari.”—Jacquemont, Correspondance, i. 196.

1848.—“Now we have seen how Mrs. Sedley had prepared a fine curry for her son.”—Vanity Fair, ch. iv.

1860.—“…Vegetables, and especially farinaceous food, are especially to be commended. The latter is indeed rendered attractive by the unrivalled excellence of the Singhalese in the preparation of innumerable curries, each tempered by the delicate creamy juice expressed from the flesh of the cocoa-nut, after it has been reduced to a pulp.”—Tennent’s Ceylon, i. 77. N.B. Tennent is misled in supposing (i. 437) that chillies are mentioned in the Mahavanso. The