Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
A Mild Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Cut the meat into pieces suitable for a fricassee.
Place the meat in a stewpan and cover it with water.
Stew and season
Add sliced silver-skinned onions and a pinch of salt.
Skim the surface while stewing until the meat is tender.
Add curry powder and lemon juice or vinegar to taste.
Boil for a few more minutes 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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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,092 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,646 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken, rabbit, veal, or mutton
- Provides the meat that becomes tender through slow stewing in liquid.
- Silver-skinned onions
- Soften during stewing and add sweetness and body to the sauce.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spiced aroma and flavor that defines the dish.
- Lemon juice or vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the stewed curry.
The step that matters
Skim the surface while stewing. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the meat cooks, and removing them keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than greasy or cloudy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion):
- Avocadofits better
- Coconutfits better
- Grapefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion. 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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