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Curry

A curry made with cold meat, apples, onion, and curry powder simmered in clarified butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Curry

Why it works: Butter and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat 2 ounces of clarified dripping or butter in a saucepan.

  2. Peel and finely chop 1 onion.

  3. Cut the cold meat into small pieces.

  4. Peel, core, and finely chop 1 small apple.

Make the curry

  1. Add the chopped onion to the hot dripping and brown it carefully. Shake the saucepan occasionally to prevent sticking.

  2. Once the onion is browned, strain it and return the dripping to the saucepan.

  3. Add the pieces of cold meat and brown them on both sides.

  4. Stir in 2 teaspoons of curry powder, the chopped apple, and salt to taste.

  5. Pour in ½ pint of cold water and add the browned onion.

  6. Stir until it boils, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the meat on a hot dish and pour the sauce over it.

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. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Apple + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the main body of the dish, browned to add savoury flavour to the sauce.
Dripping or butter
Carries heat for browning the onion and meat and adds richness to the sauce.
Apples
Break down during simmering to add subtle sweetness and body to the sauce.
Onion
Browns in the fat to build a deep, savoury base for the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Browning the onion. Onion that is only pale or that burns gives the sauce either a raw taste or a bitter one. Gentle, attentive browning develops sweet, savoury flavours, and stirring prevents sticking and scorching.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, onion. 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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