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Chicken Curry

A chicken curry made with a white sauce, curry powder, egg yolks, and lemon, served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chicken Curry

Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Singe and clean the chicken, then wash it well and soak in cold water for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain and cut the chicken into square pieces.

Poach the chicken

  1. Place the chicken pieces in a saucepan and cover with hot water.

  2. Add salt, white pepper, nutmeg, bouquet garni, and onions.

  3. Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes, skimming as needed.

  4. Drain the broth and keep the chicken warm in the saucepan.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In another saucepan, mix the white sauce with the broth thoroughly.

  2. In a bowl, combine curry powder with water, egg yolks, and lemon juice, then beat well.

  3. Gradually stir the mixture into the sauce without boiling.

  4. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately, garnished with boiled rice.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the dish, releasing flavour into the broth as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and give it a rich, smooth texture when gently heated.
White sauce
Forms the creamy base that carries the curry flavour and coats the chicken.
Curry powder
Adds the warm, aromatic spice flavour that defines the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its richness.
White onions
Add mild sweetness and body to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Gradually stir the mixture into the sauce without boiling. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but if the sauce boils they can scramble and curdle, leaving it grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, nutmeg, onion, sauce, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, nutmeg, onion, sauce, butter, flour, egg. 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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