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Another Malay Curry

A chicken curry with almond cream, lemon, turmeric, cayenne, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Another Malay Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the almonds and fry them until brown, but not blackened.

  2. Pound the almonds to a cream with the onion and lemon rind.

  3. Mix the turmeric and cayenne pepper in the water.

Cook the curry

  1. In a stewpan, combine the chicken, almond cream, and spice mixture.

  2. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

  3. Add the cream and bring to a boil.

  4. Squeeze in the lemon juice 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Turmeric + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers in the sauce.
Almonds
Pounded into a paste, they thicken the sauce and add a nutty body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.
Turmeric
Gives the curry its yellow colour and a warm, earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the almonds until brown, not blackened. Almonds go from golden to bitter within moments of darkening, and scorched nuts carry a bitter taste into the whole sauce. Frying gently to an even golden colour gives a sweet, toasted aroma that blends well with the spices.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, lemon, turmeric, pepper, cream):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Cashew nutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, lemon, turmeric, pepper, 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.

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