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A Hindoo Meal

A simple rice dish served with a spiced meat and coconut milk curry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,866 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice in an earthen vessel until tender.

  2. In a smaller vessel, cook the chicken, fish, or mutton in ghee.

Make the curry

  1. Add ginger, saffron, cumin, coriander, aniseed, red pepper, tamarind, turmeric, garlic, and coconut milk to the meat.

  2. Adjust the amount of spices to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the boiled rice on a brass plate or large leaf, topped with the curry.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,866 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,504 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Rice + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,569 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Ginger + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Saffron + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing the curry and providing a neutral starchy base.
Chicken, fish, or mutton
Provides the protein, which firms and browns as it cooks in the ghee.
Ghee
Adds fat for frying the meat, carrying flavour and promoting browning.
Coconut milk
Adds fat and body, mellowing the spices into a creamy, rounded sauce.
Tamarind
Adds sourness that balances the richness of the coconut milk and meat.

The step that matters

Adjust the amount of spices to taste. Spice strength varies with the freshness and quantity of each powder, and the fat and coconut milk mute heat and aroma, so tasting and adjusting before serving keeps the curry balanced.

Flavor stand-ins for the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, chicken, ghee, ginger, cumin, coriander, pepper):

  1. Turmericbetter flavor fit
  2. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  3. Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, chicken, ghee, ginger, cumin, coriander, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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