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A simple chicken curry simmered with coconut milk and seasoned with sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,648 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Our Curries

Ingredients

Directions

Adjust the flavour

  1. Taste the gravy and adjust acidity or sweetness as needed.

Finish the curry

  1. Once the chicken is tender, stir in the coconut milk.

  2. Simmer for three minutes to complete the dish.

  3. Reduce the gravy by simmering with the lid off.

  4. Stir the meat continuously to prevent sticking.

  5. When the desired consistency is reached, remove the pan and serve.

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. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Coconut + chickentop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Coffee + chickentop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together146 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
Supplies the main protein, which firms as it cooks and becomes tender with gentle simmering.
Coconut milk
Adds fat and body, creating a creamy texture as the gravy reduces.

The step that matters

Stir the meat continuously. Coconut milk contains sugars and proteins that scorch on the base of the pan as the gravy reduces. Constant stirring keeps the mixture moving, preventing sticking and burnt flavour while the gravy thickens.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coffee, milk, chicken):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Coconutthe original
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, milk, chicken. 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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