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Gravy for Curried Fish

A buttery, apple‑infused gravy seasoned with curry powder for curried fish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gravy for Curried Fish

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Fry the sliced onions in the butter until lightly browned.

  3. Drain the onions from the fat and mix with the stock and apples.

  4. Simmer gently until the onions are tender enough to press through a sieve.

  5. Boil the mixture again, then thicken with flour and curry powder mixed with a little cold water.

  6. Add salt and boil for 30 minutes.

  7. Just before serving, stir in the cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, and their body thickens the gravy when pressed through a sieve.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy as it boils.
Curry powder
Adds spiced aroma and flavour to the stock.
Apples
Add sharpness and natural sweetness that balance the curry.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour and curry powder. Flour mixed with cold water first disperses evenly, so it does not form lumps when it meets the hot stock. Curry powder bloomed in a little liquid also avoids gritty pockets in the gravy.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour, cream. 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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