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Quorma Curry

A mutton and tyre curry simmered with ghee, onions, garlic, cardamom, turmeric, pepper, lemon juice, almonds, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cardamom and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 667 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Quorma Curry

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the mutton and tyre by cutting them into pieces.

  2. In a large pot, heat the ghee over medium heat.

Make the curry

  1. Add the sliced onions and sauté until golden brown.

  2. Stir in the garlic, cardamom, turmeric, and pepper, cooking for a few minutes.

  3. Add the mutton and tyre, cooking until browned.

  4. Pour in the lemon juice and enough water to cover the meat.

  5. Simmer until the meat is tender, about 1-2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the pounded almonds and cream, cooking for an additional 10 minutes.

  2. Season with ground garlic and salt to taste before serving.

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. Cardamom + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Cardamom + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

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

  4. Cardamom + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together457 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Turmeric + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,192 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

Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in the sauce.
Ghee
Carries the spices and onions, adding richness and helping the onions brown.
Sliced onions
Browning them builds sweetness and body as the base of the sauce.
Pounded almonds
Thicken the sauce and add a nutty body and mild sweetness.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness, mellowing the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the spices and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Simmering the meat until tender. Connective tissue in mutton breaks down slowly over long, gentle heat. Rushing or boiling hard can leave the meat tough and the sauce unevenly cooked, so keep it at a low, steady simmer until fork-tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, garlic, cardamom, almond, turmeric, ghee, onion):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, garlic, cardamom, almond, turmeric, ghee, onion. 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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