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Curry of Cold Meat

A curry made with cold meat, onion, apple, vinegar, butter or lard, water or stock, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Curry of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter or lard in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and apple and fry until softened.

  3. Stir in the curry powder and, if desired, a little flour.

  4. Pour in the water or stock and cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture and return the liquid to the skillet.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cold meat, cut into thick slices, and cook for 5 minutes.

  2. Stir in the vinegar just before serving.

  3. Serve with rice.

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Apple + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,884 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Onion + appletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter or lard
Carries the curry powder's flavour and gives the sauce richness and body.
Onion
Softens into the base and adds savoury sweetness to the sauce.
Sour apple
Adds tartness and some body as it breaks down during the slow simmer.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice aroma and warm flavour of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the vinegar just before serving. Acid is volatile and mellows with heat, so adding it at the end keeps its sharp brightness. Cooking it long would dull the tang that balances the rich sauce.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

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