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Bombay Curry

A curry with onions, stock, curry powder, chutney, sugar, salt, meat, apple, lemon juice, and chili vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Bombay Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the sliced onions in a pan until brown and crisp.

  2. In a small saucepan, mix stock, curry powder, chutney, sugar, and salt, then bring to a boil.

Cook

  1. Add the meat and apple slices to the pan with the onions.

  2. Pour the sauce over the meat and apple, and fry for 30 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

  3. When nearly cooked, add lemon juice and chili vinegar.

Serve

  1. Serve hot 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. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Apple + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,884 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Onion + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Browned and crisped onions build the deep, savory base flavor of the curry.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavor that defines the dish.
Meat
Forms the main protein, becoming tender as it simmers in the sauce.
Apple
Adds mild sweetness and body that softens into the sauce.
Chili vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce while it fries. The sugar and sliced apple in the sauce can scorch on the pan bottom during the 30-minute fry. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents burnt, bitter flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, meat, apple, lemon, vinegar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, meat, apple, lemon, vinegar. 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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