Why it works: Rice and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,063 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Curry Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and finely mince the onion and apple.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter or dripping in a saucepan over low heat.
Add the onion and apple, frying gently until the onion is pale brown.
Stir in the curry powder and paste, frying gently for 5 minutes.
Add the rice flour and cook gently for another 5 minutes.
Gradually stir in the stock, then add the coconut and salt.
Simmer gently for 30 minutes until the onion and apple are soft.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan to reheat.
Finish
For a smoother sauce, use coconut milk instead of desiccated coconut.
If using coconut milk, omit ½ cup of stock.
Add lemon juice and cream if desired for extra flavor.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Rice + coconuttop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,063 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onion
- Softens during simmering and adds savoury sweetness and depth to the sauce.
- Apple
- Breaks down while simmering, adding natural sweetness and body to the sauce.
- Rice flour
- Cooked in the fat, it thickens the stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
- Curry powder
- Frying it in butter releases its aromatic compounds, giving the sauce its spiced flavour.
- Coconut
- Adds richness, fat and a mild coconut sweetness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Frying the rice flour. Cooking flour in fat for several minutes cooks off its raw taste and lets it thicken evenly. Stirring in the stock too soon can leave lumps.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, apple, butter, rice, flour, coconut, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Avocadofits better
- Mangofits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, apple, butter, rice, flour, coconut, cream. 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.
More curry sauce recipes
You might also like
Hot Lemon Cream Sauce11 recipes
Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipes
Caper Sauce180 recipes
Brown Sauce141 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.