Skip to main content
Soup

Curry, Dry

A sautéed dish of meat or fish with butter, onion, dry curry powder, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curry, Dry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the diced onion and sauté until soft.

  3. Add your choice of poultry, game, meat, or fish and cook until tender.

  4. Stir in the dry curry powder.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the meat to a serving dish.

  2. Pour the cream into the sauté pan and mix well.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps soften the onion without browning it quickly.
Onion
Softens as it cooks, adding sweetness and body to the base of the dish.
Poultry, game, meat, or fish
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it cooks in the pan.
Dry curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the finished sauce a smoother, richer texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the dry curry powder. Spices release their aroma best when briefly toasted in fat. Adding them to a pan that is too hot or leaving them too long can scorch them and make the dish bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, meat, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, meat, cream. 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.

You might also like

Meatless Green Pea SoupMeatless Green Pea Soup22 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes