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Curry Balls

Curry balls are rice and meat mixtures shaped into balls, seasoned with curry and herbs, then baked or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Curry Balls

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curry Balls

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the rice

  1. Boil the rice with water, curry powder, salt, sugar, and chopped onion until cooked.

Shape the balls

  1. Chop the cold meat and mix it with minced parsley and mixed herbs.

  2. Combine the meat mixture with the beaten egg.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

Bake and fry

  1. Place the balls on a well-buttered baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

  3. Coat the balls in egg and bread crumbs.

  4. Fry the coated balls in boiling oil until golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Adds bulk and starch that help the mixture hold together as balls.
Cold meat
Provides the main bulk and protein that sets as the balls cook.
Egg
Binds the mixture and sets on heating, and helps the crumb coating stick.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spiced aroma and flavour of the balls.
Onion
Cooks down with the rice to add sweetness and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Fry the coated balls in boiling oil until golden.. Hot oil sets the crumb coating quickly, so the balls crisp, seal and absorb less oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating can soak up grease and may separate from the balls.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, meat, parsley, egg, butter, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, meat, parsley, egg, butter, bread. 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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