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Indian Kedgeree

A dish of cold fish, onion, butter, coconut, milk, eggs, curry paste, rice, and salt simmered together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Indian Kedgeree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones from the cold fish and set aside.

Cook the kedgeree

  1. In a saucepan, broil the chopped onion in butter until soft.

  2. Stir in the desiccated coconut and add the milk and fish pieces.

  3. Add the chopped hard-boiled eggs and season to taste.

  4. Let the mixture simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Add the curry paste and boiled rice, mixing well.

  6. Simmer for a few more minutes, then serve with toasted bread or milk biscuits.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Fish + salmontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Provides the main flaky protein and bulk that forms the body of the dish.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, letting the mixture simmer into a soft, saucy texture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, slightly crumbly texture throughout the mixture.
Desiccated coconut
Adds sweetness, fat and a subtle nutty aroma that softens the curry flavour.
Butter
Softens the onion and carries flavour, adding richness to the base.
Curry paste
Supplies the spice and aromatic flavour that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after adding the milk. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pan or boil over if heated too fast. A gentle simmer with occasional stirring cooks the mixture evenly and keeps the milk smooth rather than curdled or stuck.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, salmon, turbot, butter, coconut, milk, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, salmon, turbot, butter, coconut, milk, egg. 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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