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Curried Oysters

A savory oyster dish simmered with curry, coconut, tamarind, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tamarind and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 137 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Curried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Open the oysters into a basin, keeping their liquor.

  2. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Add the sliced onion and fry until rich brown.

  4. Stir in 2-3 tablespoons of curry powder and mix well.

  5. Gradually add hot water or broth, cover, and bring to a boil.

Simmer and thicken

  1. Add the grated cocoa-nut and chopped sour tamarinds or apple.

  2. Simmer until the apple dissolves and the cocoa-nut is tender.

  3. Mix in the flour and water thickening and season with salt.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes, then add the boiled vegetable marrow and tomatoes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the oysters with their liquor and the cocoa-nut milk.

  2. Gently stew for a few minutes, then add the lemon juice.

  3. Serve with rice on the side.

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. Tamarind + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tamarindtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tamarind + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together111 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

Oysters
Provide the main protein and a briny flavour that the curry sauce carries.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and colour that define the dish.
Onion
Browned slowly, it adds sweetness and depth to the sauce base.
Flour mixed with water
Starch that thickens the liquid into a body-rich sauce.
Cocoa-nut
Adds richness, body and sweetness through its grated flesh and milk.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and moisture to balance the rich curry.

The step that matters

Stirring in the oysters at the end. Oysters cook very quickly and turn tough and rubbery if overheated, so they should only be gently stewed until just cooked.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, onion, meat, tamarind, flour, tomato):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, onion, meat, tamarind, flour, tomato. 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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