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Vegetable Curry

A stew of celery, onions, broccoli in butter and gravy, served over mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the washed celery sticks into small pieces about 1 inch long.

  2. Melt the butter in a stew-pan.

  3. Roll the celery, small onions, and broccoli in curry powder.

Make the stew

  1. Add the vegetables to the stew-pan with gravy and stew gently until tender.

Prepare and serve

  1. Prepare hot mashed potatoes seasoned with curry powder and a little salt.

  2. Dish the mashed potatoes in a border shape, place the stew in the center, and serve.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Broccoli + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together910 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + broccolitop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + broccolitop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the vegetables brown lightly and carry flavor.
Curry powder
Provides the aromatic spice flavor that defines the dish, especially when coating the vegetables.
Gravy
Supplies liquid and savory flavor, keeping the vegetables moist as they stew.
Onions
Become sweeter and softer as they cook slowly in the stew.
Broccoli
Adds body and texture, softening as it stews until tender.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a starchy base that holds the stew and adds creamy body.

The step that matters

Stew gently until tender. Gentle heat softens the vegetables' fibers evenly without breaking them down or scorching the gravy. Rapid boiling can toughen some vegetables and thicken or burn the sauce on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, broccoli, potato. 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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