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Real English Currie

A lamb stew with onions, apples, and curry spices served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Real English Currie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stew the lamb for 20 minutes.

  2. Chop the onions and apples finely.

  3. Brown the onions and apples in bacon grease.

Make the curry

  1. Add salt and curry powder to the mixture.

  2. Mix the onion and apple mixture into the lamb stew and cook for 2 hours.

  3. Just before serving, add flour and lemon juice.

Serve

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

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

  2. Lamb + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

  5. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 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

Lamb
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender during the long, slow stew.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they brown, building savory depth in the curry.
Apples
Break down while cooking, adding sweetness and mild acidity to balance the curry powder.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its characteristic aroma and flavor.
All-purpose flour
Added near the end to thicken the sauce slightly.
Lemon juice
Adds brightness and acidity to lift the rich, spiced flavors.

The step that matters

Just before serving, add flour and lemon juice.. Flour thickens best when it is added near the end of cooking, and acid added late keeps its bright flavor instead of fading during a long simmer.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, onion, flour, lemon, rice):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, onion, flour, lemon, 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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