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Mahratta Meat Curry

A coconut and spice-infused mutton or beef curry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cumin and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,698 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Mahratta Meat Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spice paste

  1. Heat 1 teaspoon of ghee in a pan and brown the coconut bits, onion, cumin seeds, aniseed, peppercorns, allspice, and dried chillies.

  2. Grind the browned mixture with coriander seeds, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and green chillies until smooth.

Cook the curry

  1. Cut the meat into small squares and mix with the ground spices and salt. Set aside.

  2. In a pot, heat the remaining ghee and brown a few slices of onion.

  3. Add the marinated meat and brown for a few minutes.

  4. Pour in 1 cup of water and cook until the meat is nearly tender.

  5. Add ½ cup of warm water and simmer until the meat is tender.

Finish

  1. If desired, stir in ½ cup of thick coconut milk 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. Cumin + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,698 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cumin + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,866 recipes

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

  3. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, moist simmering.
Coconut
Browned coconut adds nutty depth and body to the spice base.
Onion
Browning onion builds sweetness and savoury depth in the curry base.
Ghee
Fat that carries spice flavour and helps the spices and onion brown well.
Cumin seeds
Toasted seeds contribute warm, earthy aroma to the spice blend.

The step that matters

Simmering the meat in stages. Mutton and beef need slow, moist cooking so their connective tissue breaks down and the meat turns tender. Adding water in stages keeps the pot from drying out or scorching while the spices cook into the sauce.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, cumin, allspice, coriander, turmeric, ginger):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Coconutthe original
  4. Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, cumin, allspice, coriander, turmeric, ginger. 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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