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A Curry of Cold Meat

A curry made with cold meat, stock, flour, curry powder, apple or green gooseberries, onion, dripping, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,364 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Curry of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely slice and mince the onion.

  2. Fry the onion in the hot dripping until browned.

  3. Mince the apple.

  4. Fry the minced apple as well.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the curry powder and flour with the stock or water until smooth.

  2. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and stir until it boils, adding salt to taste.

  3. Add the meat and heat through.

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. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  2. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,140 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + appletop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together787 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the body of the dish and is gently warmed through in the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock so the curry sauce becomes smooth and coats the meat.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that define the dish.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and a fruity tang that balances the rich, spiced sauce.
Onion
Browns in the dripping to add savoury sweetness and depth to the base.

The step that matters

Stirring the curry mixture until it boils. Flour must be fully dispersed in cold liquid before heating, then brought to a boil so its starch swells and thickens the sauce. Stopping early leaves a thin sauce, and lumps form if it is not stirred smooth.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, 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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