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Iced Tomato Curry

A chilled tomato curry with onions, shallots, butter, curry powder, anchovy sauce, coconut, cayenne, gravy, and sweet chutney served over iced boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Iced Tomato Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cook the sliced tomatoes slightly.

Make the curry base

  1. In a pan, fry the chopped onion and shallot in butter until soft.

  2. Add curry powder, anchovy sauce, desiccated coconut, cayenne, and gravy; simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in the cooked tomatoes and sweet chutney.

Chill and serve

  1. Chill the mixture on ice and serve with iced 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.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main bulk and fresh acidity that gives the curry its body and tang.
Onion and shallot
Build a sweet, savoury base as they soften slowly in butter.
Butter
Carries the curry powder's aroma and adds richness to the frying base.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice flavour and aroma of the dish.
Desiccated coconut
Adds body and a subtle sweet, nutty flavour as it simmers into the sauce.
Gravy
Adds savoury depth and liquid that helps the spices simmer into the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the curry base. Simmering for 30 minutes lets the spices bloom and the raw edge of the onion, shallot and coconut mellow. Stopping early can leave the sauce tasting harsh or thin.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, shallot, butter, anchovy, sauce, pepper):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, shallot, butter, anchovy, sauce, pepper. 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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