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Beef, Curried

A stew of sliced beef simmered in a curry sauce with apple, onion, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef, Curried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into slices about ½ inch thick and 1 inch square.

  2. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  3. Fry the meat quickly and lightly.

  4. Remove the meat to a plate.

Make the curry sauce

  1. Add the onion, flour, and curry powder to the pan. Fry gently for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the stock, curry paste, sliced apple, and salt to taste. Bring to a boil.

  3. Return the meat to the pan. Cover closely. Cook gently for 1½ hours.

Cook the rice and serve

  1. Boil the rice. Drain and dry thoroughly.

  2. Remove the meat to a hot dish.

  3. Season the sauce to taste. Add the lemon juice. Strain over the meat.

  4. Serve the rice separately.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Beef
Lean, tender meat that becomes more tender when gently simmered in the sauce.
Butter
Fat that carries the curry flavours and gives the meat a light browning when fried.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and onion.
Curry powder
Provides the main spiced aroma and flavour of the sauce.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and body to the sauce, balancing the richness of the meat.
Onions
Soften during gentle frying, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook gently for 1½ hours. Keeping the sauce at a gentle simmer under a tight cover lets the beef become tender without the liquid reducing too fast or the meat toughening from vigorous boiling.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, onion, lemon, rice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, onion, lemon, rice. 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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