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Curry of Fish

A fish curry made with various white fish, onions, carrots, curry powder, and thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and haddock match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Curry of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove bones from the fish.

  2. Cut the fish into neat pieces.

  3. Rub the fish with flour.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the fish in butter until light brown.

  2. Drain the fish on a sieve.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix curry powder and flour to a paste with a little broth.

  4. Add 2 beaten onions and thick cream to the paste.

  5. Mix the mixture into the gravy.

Stew and serve

  1. Gently stew the fish in the gravy until tender.

  2. Serve the fish with the sauce poured over it.

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. Whiting + haddocktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Turbot + whitingtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Turbot + haddocktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Slices of cod, turbot, brill, halibut, whiting, haddock, codling
Firm white flesh that flakes when cooked and forms the body of the dish.
Flour
Coats the fish and thickens the sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Fat that browns the fish and adds rich flavour.
Curry powder
Provides the spiced aroma and flavour that define the curry.
Onions
Add sweetness and body to the sauce as they soften.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Gently stew the fish in the gravy until tender. Fish protein sets and toughens with prolonged or vigorous heat, and the flesh breaks apart easily. A gentle simmer cooks it through while keeping it moist and intact.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, whiting, haddock, fish, onion, butter, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, whiting, haddock, fish, onion, butter, flour. 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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