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Curry of a Rich Yet Mild Description

A mutton curry flavored with cardamom, cloves, turmeric, almonds, and lime.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cardamom and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 667 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Curry of a Rich Yet Mild Description

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook cardamoms and cloves in a pan for 5 minutes.

  2. Dilute with mutton broth and add the meat.

  3. Simmer over moderate heat until the meat is tender.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in almond infusion and cream.

  5. Add turmeric powder and sugar, then mix thoroughly.

  6. Return to low heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  7. Finish with lime juice.

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. Cardamom + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cardamom + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cardamom + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together457 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + turmerictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 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

Mutton broth
Provides the liquid base and savoury depth for the curry.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.
Sweet almonds
Contribute body and a nutty flavour through the almond infusion.
Cardamoms
Supply the warm, aromatic flavour that defines the spice blend.
Turmeric powder
Adds earthy flavour and a golden colour to the curry.

The step that matters

Mix in the cream after removing from heat. Cream can curdle or split when it is boiled hard, so it is added off the heat and then gently warmed again. Keeping the simmer gentle preserves a smooth, emulsified sauce.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cardamom, mutton, meat, almond, cream, turmeric, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cardamom, mutton, meat, almond, cream, turmeric, sugar. 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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