Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Curry Pie of Fish or Meat
Ingredients
Directions
In a pot, combine curry powder, mace, and lemon peel. Simmer gently until fragrant.
Prepare oysters by removing gills and boiling them in the curry liquor.
Add oysters, cream, and pounded almonds to the pot. Stir to combine.
Thicken the mixture with rice flour and butter or egg yolk if desired.
Serve the curry in a casserole with rice or in a puff pastry shell.
Optionally, let it cool and make a pasty with puff pastry.
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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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, oyster, cream, almond, rice, flour, butter):
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, oyster, cream, almond, rice, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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