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Curried Beef

A stew of sliced beef simmered with butter, onions, stock, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into pieces about one inch square.

Cook the curry

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and fry the sliced onions until light brown.

  2. Add the beef, stock, and curry powder to the pan.

  3. Stir gently over medium heat for about ten minutes.

  4. If the mixture is too dry, add one or two more spoonfuls of stock.

Serve

  1. Serve in a deep dish with an edging of dry 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean cold roast or boiled beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and absorbs the sauce as it warms.
Butter
Carries the curry powder's flavour and adds richness to the dish.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and savoury depth to the sauce.
Stock
Supplies the liquid that forms the sauce and keeps the beef moist.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that define the dish.

The step that matters

Adding stock when the mixture is too dry. Gently simmering reduces the liquid, so the sauce can thicken too far and leave the beef dry. Adding small amounts of stock restores moisture and keeps the dish from scorching.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter. 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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