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Bengal Curry

A veal curry made with a blend of spices, onions, garlic, bacon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,698 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bengal Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry powder

  1. Finely powder the spices: turmeric, coriander seed, ginger, mustard, black pepper, cayenne, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, and pimento. Mix thoroughly in a large bowl.

  2. Store the curry powder in small bottles, sealing them to exclude air.

Cook the curry

  1. Cut the veal into small pieces and place in a saucepan with butter, curry powder, onions, garlic, and bacon.

  2. Stir the mixture and cook over gentle heat, covering the saucepan. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

  3. Cook until the meat is tender and the juices form a gravy.

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. Turmeric + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,698 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Coriander + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Turmeric + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cardamom + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Lean breast meat that becomes tender during slow cooking and gives the dish its main body.
Curry powder
Supplies the dominant spice aroma and warm, pungent flavour of the dish.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, building a savoury base for the gravy.
Streaky bacon
Renders fat into the pan, adding richness and savoury flavour to the gravy.
Sweet butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the spices bloom and coat the meat.
Garlic
Adds pungent, savoury aroma that deepens as it cooks gently with the meat.

The step that matters

Cook over gentle heat, stirring frequently. Low heat with a lid lets the meat tenderise and release juices slowly. Without frequent stirring, the onions, spices and butter can scorch on the pan base, leaving a bitter taste and burnt flavour in the gravy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turmeric, coriander, ginger, pepper, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turmeric, coriander, ginger, pepper, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon. 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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