Name: Cubbubed Curry
Ingredients: ½ pound pork (fresh or pickled); ½ pound meat (chicken or rabbit); 2 teaspoons garlic; 1 teaspoon turmeric; salt to taste; pepper or curry powder to taste; grilled toasts or dry rice for serving

Why it works: Turmeric and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,941 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cubbubed Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cube the pork and meat into bite-sized pieces.

Cook and season

In a pan, cook the cubed meat with garlic and turmeric.
Season with salt and pepper or curry powder as desired.

Serve

Serve with grilled toasts or dry 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.

Turmeric + ricetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,941 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Turmeric + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,478 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Garlic + turmerictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,363 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,137 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pork: Provides fat and rich flavor as the main meat, which browns during cooking.
Chicken or rabbit: Adds lean meat that becomes tender and absorbs the seasoning as it cooks.
Garlic: Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and deepens as it cooks in the pan.
Turmeric: Adds earthy flavor and a golden color to the meat.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, meat, turmeric, pepper, rice):

Cuminfits better
Cardamomfits better
Thymefits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, meat, turmeric, pepper, 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.