Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Indian Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Make the curry sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour and mix until smooth.
Slowly add the warm gravy and stir until combined.
Mix the curry powder with the cold milk or gravy, then add to the saucepan.
Stir in the cream and cook until thick and smooth.
Season to taste, then add the port wine just before removing from heat.
Serve
Pour the curry over the meat or fish immediately and serve with boiled rice and chutney.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour to the roux base of the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter, giving it body.
- Curry powder
- Provides the spiced flavour that defines the curry.
- Cream
- Adds richness and smoothness, mellowing the sauce.
- Port wine
- Adds a sweet, fruity depth to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring in the flour and gravy. Flour lumps if it is not mixed into the melted butter before liquid is added, and cold liquid added too fast can clump it. Stirring smoothly until combined keeps the sauce silky.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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