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Curry of Eels

A curry made with raw eel, butter, onion, curry powder, broth, and chutney, served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curry of Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. In a chafing dish, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the minced onion and curry powder, stirring to combine.

  3. Add the raw eel pieces, cover, and shake the dish to prevent burning.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the veal broth or fish consommé.

  5. Stir in the chutney or tomato sauce and heat through.

Serve

  1. Serve with 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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory body as it softens in the butter.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Veal broth or fish consommé
Adds liquid and savory depth to form the sauce.
Chutney or tomato sauce
Contributes acidity and sweetness to balance the spices.

The step that matters

Shaking the covered dish while the eel cooks. Raw eel and onion can scorch on direct heat in a chafing dish. Shaking the covered dish moves the pieces and keeps them from sticking and burning before the broth is added.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

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