Why it works: Butter and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
King of OUDE’s Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter over low heat in a stew pan.
Add the chopped onions and sauté until soft.
Stir in the veal gravy and curry powder.
Add the meat pieces and cover the pan.
Simmer gently for 2 hours.
Add lemon juice to taste before serving.
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.
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + meattop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + meattop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce with fat and carries the curry powder's aroma.
- Onions
- Soften and sweeten as they cook, forming the base of the sauce.
- Veal gravy
- Adds savory depth and moisture to the sauce.
- Curry powder
- Provides the main spice aroma and flavor of the dish.
- Meat
- Becomes tender through long, gentle simmering in the sauce.
The step that matters
Simmer gently for 2 hours. Gentle, low heat lets tough meat break down and become tender without the liquid boiling away or the meat toughening. Vigorous boiling tightens muscle fibers and can leave the sauce too reduced.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, veal, meat):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Grapefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, veal, meat. 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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