Skip to main content
Main

An Indian Burdwan

A stew of fowl in a sauce of onion, butter, anchovy essence, chili vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,326 recipes. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

An Indian Burdwan

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan combine a tablespoonful of very mild onion finely minced, a quarter pint of cold water, an ounce of butter blended with a small teaspoon of flour, a moderate seasoning of cayenne, and a tablespoonful of anchovy essence.

  2. Shake or stir the sauce over a clear fire until it boils, then let it stand aside and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes, or until the onion is tender.

  3. Add a couple of wineglassful of Madeira (or Sherry or Teneriffe) and a tablespoonful of chili vinegar.

Add the fowl and serve

  1. Lay in the fowl after carving it neatly, dividing all joints and stripping off the skin; let it remain close to the fire, but without boiling, until it is heated through; bring it to a boil and serve immediately.

  2. If the fowl has been parboiled for a quarter hour, gently stew it in the sauce for fifteen to twenty minutes; longer may make it tough.

  3. Optionally serve with rice boiled as for curry.

  4. Add fresh lime juice before serving if desired.

Variations

  1. Cold lamb, veal, calf’s head, or young rabbit may be served as a reheated dish in the same sauce.

  2. Condiments may be adjusted; pickled capsicum or minced chilies can be added in place of or with chili vinegar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

471Calories
23 gProtein
31 gFat
27 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Eggs1 large egg (50g)78
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together965 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and gives it a smooth, rounded body when blended with flour.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the pieces of fowl.
Fowl (in the method)
Is the main protein, becoming tender as it gently simmers in the sauce.
Anchovy essence
Adds a deep, savoury saltiness that rounds out the sauce.
Chili vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and heat that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the fowl in the sauce. Once the fowl is added, boiling or long simmering toughens its proteins and makes the meat dry and stringy. Keep it just below a boil until heated through, and stew gently for the stated time.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, vinegar, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, vinegar, egg, milk, 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.

You might also like

Leek SoupLeek Soup31 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes