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Pork, Curried

A pork curry made with onions, apple, curry powder, paste, ground rice, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pork, Curried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pork

  1. Cut the pork into neat slices.

  2. Fry the pork slices in butter until browned, then drain and set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. Sauté the minced onions and apple in the same butter until soft.

  2. Press the sautéed mixture through a sieve using a wooden spoon.

  3. Mix the pulp with curry powder, curry paste, ground rice, stock or water, and salt.

  4. Stir the sauce over heat until it boils, then add the pork slices.

  5. Let the sauce boil briefly, then reduce heat and simmer gently until the pork is cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the pork from the sauce, boil the sauce for 2–3 minutes, then pour it over the pork.

  2. Serve the curry with rice on a separate dish.

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 + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  3. Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

  5. Pork + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork
Provides the main meat; browning the slices first adds colour and savoury flavour.
Onions
Break down when sautéed and pressed through a sieve, adding body and sweetness to the sauce.
Apple
Softens into the pulp, adding mild sweetness and body that balances the curry spices.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice aroma and flavour of the dish.
Ground rice
Thickens the sauce as it simmers, giving it a smoother body.

The step that matters

Simmering the pork gently after the sauce boils. Once the pork is added, a hard boil can toughen the meat and break up the sauce. Keeping it at a gentle simmer cooks the pork through while it stays tender and the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Mangofits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, butter, onion, rice. 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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