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Curry of Mutton

A mutton curry served with boiled rice, finished with a beaten egg glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Curry of Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice and add it to the boiling water.

  2. Let it boil for 35 minutes.

  3. Drain the rice in a colander.

Make the curry

  1. Melt the drippings in a frying pan.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add ½ cup of boiling water.

  4. Let it boil once.

  5. Add the mutton, curry powder, and salt.

  6. Stir for 10 minutes.

Plate and brown

  1. Heap the mutton mixture in the center of a serving dish.

  2. Arrange the rice around it.

  3. Brush the rice and mutton with the beaten egg.

  4. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes to brown.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Mutton
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the curry as it simmers in the sauce.
Rice
Forms the starchy base that is served alongside the curry.
Drippings
Carry fat that blooms the curry powder and carries its aroma through the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma and color that define the dish.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the hot water and fat.
Beaten egg
Adds a glaze that promotes browning on the rice and mutton in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the drippings until smooth. Flour added to fat must be stirred well so it cooks evenly and no lumps form. Adding the hot water gradually then keeps the sauce smooth and lump-free as it thickens.

“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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