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Curried Oysters an Indian Dish

A curry of oysters simmered with onion, curry powder, cocoa‑nut, apple, and lemon, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa and apple work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 52 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Curried Oysters an Indian Dish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the oysters in a bowl, reserving their liquor.

  2. In a stew pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

Make the curry base

  1. Add the sliced onion and fry until browned.

  2. Stir in the remaining butter and curry powder, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add broth or hot water, then cover and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the grated cocoa-nut and chopped apple, simmer until the apple dissolves.

  5. Stir in the flour mixture and salt, and boil for 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the oysters with their liquor and the cocoa-nut milk, stirring gently.

  2. Let it stew for a few minutes, then add the lemon juice.

  3. Serve the curry with a side of 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.

  1. Cocoa + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Main protein that cooks briefly in the sauce, so they stay tender when added late.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice and aroma that define the dish.
Flour mixed with water
Thickens the broth into a sauce that clings to the oysters.
Cocoa-nut
Adds moisture, richness and body to the curry through its grated meat and milk.
Sour apple
Breaks down into the sauce, adding sweetness and acidity to balance the curry.
Onion
Browns to build a sweeter, deeper flavour base for the curry.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters at the end. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be added with their liquor and only stewed briefly until just heated through.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, butter, onion, meat, cocoa, apple, flour):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, onion, meat, cocoa, apple, flour. 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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