Name: A Wet Curry , or Curry with Gravy
Ingredients: 2 chickens, cut into pieces; 3 tablespoons curry powder; 6 large onions, cut small; 1 pint beef or veal gravy; juice of 1 lemon; butter for frying

Why it works: Chicken and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,148 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

A Wet Curry , or Curry with Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

Fry the chicken pieces gently in butter until cooked through.
In a separate pan, fry the onions until browned but not burnt.
Add the fried onions and curry powder to the chicken.
Pour in the beef or veal gravy and cover the pan.
Stew gently until the meat is tender.

Finish and serve

Just before serving, add the lemon 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.

Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,148 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 through slow, gentle stewing.
Onions: Break down when browned, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
Curry powder: Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Beef or veal gravy: Supplies liquid and savoury depth, forming the sauce as the meat stews.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the onions. Onions should be browned but not burnt. Burnt onions turn bitter and can spoil the whole sauce, while properly browned onions add sweetness and depth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, beef, butter):

Coconutfits better
Avocadofits better
Grapefits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, beef, butter. 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.

Chicken Broth257 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

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A Wet Curry , or Curry with Gravy