Name: East Indian Curry
Ingredients: 2 green peppers; 1 pint finely cut meat (chicken, lamb, mutton, or lobster); 2 teaspoons curry powder; ½ cup milk or stock; Hot boiled rice

Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

East Indian Curry

Ingredients

2 green peppers
1 pint finely cut meat (chicken, lamb, mutton, or lobster)
2 teaspoons curry powder
½ cup milk or stock
Hot boiled rice

Directions

Make the curry

In a stew pan, combine the meat and milk or stock.
Add the parboiled, seeded, and chopped green peppers and curry powder.
Let the mixture simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve

Serve the rice and curry sauce in separate dishes, both piping hot.

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.

Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,703 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 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

Meat: Provides the protein and body of the curry, becoming tender as it simmers in the liquid.
Green peppers: Add a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavour and some texture to the sauce.
Curry powder: Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its characteristic aroma and flavour.
Milk or stock: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the spices and softening the meat.

“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.