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Curry

A spiced meat dish made with a paste of ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander, cayenne pepper, onion, garlic, turmeric, and ghee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Curry

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spice paste

  1. Grind ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander, Cayenne pepper, onion, garlic, and turmeric into a powder using a mortar and pestle.

  2. Mix the ground spices with ghee to form a paste.

Finish the curry

  1. Add the spice paste to stewed kid or fowl and cook until well combined.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cardamom + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ghee
Carries the ground spices as a paste and adds rich fat that carries their aroma.
Onion
Adds sweetness and body as it breaks down into the spice mixture.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that deepens as it is ground into the spices.
Turmeric
Contributes earthy flavour and a yellow colour to the curry.
Meat (kid or fowl)
Forms the main body of the dish, absorbing the spice paste as it stews.

The step that matters

Add the spice paste to stewed kid or fowl and cook until well combined. Ground spices release flavour gradually in fat and heat, so the paste must be fully stirred through the stew and cooked, otherwise raw, gritty spice can taste harsh and unevenly distributed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, coriander, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, coriander, pepper. 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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