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The King of Oude's Curry

A curry of butter, onions, gravy, curry powder, meat, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

The King of Oude's Curry

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan over low heat.

  2. Add the chopped onions and sauté until soft.

  3. Stir in the gravy and curry powder.

  4. Add the meat pieces and mix well.

  5. Cover the stewpan and gently simmer for 2 hours.

  6. Before serving, squeeze in lemon juice to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and carries the curry powder's flavor through the sauce.
Onions
Soften during sautéing and add sweetness and body to the sauce.
Gravy
Provides the liquid base and savory depth for the curry.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice aroma and flavor of the dish.
Meat
Becomes tender through slow simmering and absorbs the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. Low, covered simmering keeps the meat tender and prevents the sauce from reducing too fast or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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