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Beef Forcemeat Ball Curry

A curry of beef forcemeat balls simmered with spices and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Beef Forcemeat Ball Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meatballs

  1. Wash the beef thoroughly and cut it into pieces, discarding veins and scraggy portions.

  2. Pound the beef in a mortar until fine, removing all fibers and veins.

  3. Mix the pounded beef with salt, pepper, garden herbs, and bread-crumbs.

  4. Add a little broth or milk to the mixture and combine well.

  5. Beat the egg and add it to the mixture, then form into balls the size of large walnuts.

  6. Roll the balls in bread-crumbs.

Cook the curry

  1. Heat the pot and melt the lard or ghee, then fry the ground ingredients, sprinkling a tablespoon of cold water over them.

  2. Add the coftas to the pot with salt to taste and fry until browned.

  3. Pour in a cup of broth or water and allow to simmer for about two hours.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Turmeric + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,363 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the coftas and provides the rich, meaty flavor.
Egg
Binds the pounded meat and bread-crumbs so the balls hold their shape.
Bread-crumbs
Absorbs moisture and softens the texture of the meatballs.
Lard or ghee
Fat for frying the spices, carrying their aroma and helping the coftas brown.

The step that matters

Frying the ground ingredients with a splash of cold water. Adding a little cold water while frying the spices keeps them from scorching and burning before they release their aroma, giving the curry a smooth, well-cooked base.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ghee, onion, turmeric, fish, crab, garlic):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Pepperfits less well
  4. Corianderfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ghee, onion, turmeric, fish, crab, garlic. 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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