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Madras Dry Curry

A dry curry made with meat, onion, butter, Madras curry powder, water, gravy, lemon juice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Madras Dry Curry

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and fry the sliced onion until light brown.

  2. Add the meat pieces and cook until browned.

  3. Stir in the Madras curry powder, water, gravy, lemon juice, and salt.

  4. Stew the mixture together until nearly dry.

  5. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the main protein, which browns and becomes tender as it stews.
Onion
Softens and browns in the butter, adding sweetness and a savoury base.
Butter
Carries the frying of the onion and adds richness and browning flavour.
Madras curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its main aroma and flavour.
Gravy
Adds liquid and savoury depth that concentrates as the mixture reduces.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced flavours.

The step that matters

Stew the mixture until nearly dry. Reducing the liquid slowly concentrates the spices and gravy into a thick coating on the meat. Stopping too early leaves the dish soupy, while over-reducing can scorch the spices and dry out the meat.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, butter):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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