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Ceylon or Malay Curry

A coconut-based curry with prawns or scallops, flavored with shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ceylon or Malay Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the fresh coconut and set aside.

Make the curry

  1. In a pan, sauté the shallots, garlic, and ginger until fragrant.

  2. Add the turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves, stirring well.

  3. Incorporate the prawns or scallops and cook until they turn pink.

  4. Add the sliced cucumber and grated coconut, mixing thoroughly.

  5. Garnish with strips of red and green chili before serving.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Shallot + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns or scallops
Provide the main protein, which turns pink and firm as it cooks.
Fresh coconut
Adds moisture, richness and a subtly sweet, nutty flavour to the curry.
Shallots
Soften and sweeten as they sauté, forming the aromatic base of the dish.
Fresh ginger
Adds a warm, pungent aroma that brightens the spice base.

The step that matters

Cook the seafood until it just turns pink. Prawns and scallops toughen quickly when overcooked, so removing them as soon as they turn pink keeps them tender and juicy.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, shallot, clove, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, scallop):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, shallot, clove, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, scallop. 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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