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A Bengal Currie

A Bengal Currie is a mutton curry simmered with onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, salt, cayenne pepper, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Bengal Currie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Slice and fry three large onions in two ounces of butter, and lift them out of the pan when done.

  2. Put into a stewpan three other large onions and a small clove of garlic which have been pounded together, and smoothly mix with a dessertspoonful of the best pale turmeric, a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, one teaspoon of salt, and one teaspoon of cayenne pepper; add to these the butter in which the onions were fried, and half a cupful of good gravy; let them stew for about ten minutes, taking care that they shall not burn.

Simmer with meat

  1. Next, stir in the fried onions and half a pint more of gravy; add a pound and a half of mutton, or of any other meat, free from bone and fat, and simmer it gently for an hour, or more should it not then be perfectly tender.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

171Calories
2 gProtein
12 gFat
15 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Fried onions add body and a sweet, savoury depth to the sauce.
Butter
Carries the spices and onions and adds richness to the sauce.
Gravy
Provides the liquid that turns the spiced base into a sauce.
Mutton (in the method)
Becomes tender through slow simmering, giving the curry its main body.

The step that matters

Stewing the spiced onion base. The mixture must stew gently for about ten minutes without burning, since scorched spices and onions turn bitter and spoil the flavour of the whole curry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, clove, garlic, ginger, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, clove, garlic, ginger, 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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