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Curry of Prawns

A curry made with prawns, butter, curry powder, flour, apple, onion, coconut, lemon juice, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curry of Prawns

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell the prawns and set them aside.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Fry the onion without browning.

  3. Add the curry powder and flour.

  4. Fry slowly for at least 20 minutes.

  5. Add the stock, apple, coconut, and a little salt.

  6. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  7. Strain the mixture.

  8. Return it to the stewpan.

  9. Season to taste.

  10. Add the lemon juice.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the prawns.

  2. Heat thoroughly.

  3. Serve with well-boiled rice.

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 + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

  4. Onion + coconuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,831 recipes

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

  5. Coconut + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Prawns
Provide the main protein, which cooks quickly and turns firm and tender when heated.
Butter
Carries the curry spices and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and curry powder.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice aroma and flavour of the dish.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and body as it breaks down during simmering.

The step that matters

Stir in the prawns and heat thoroughly. Prawn protein toughens and turns rubbery when overheated, so the prawns should be added late and heated only until cooked through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, apple, coconut, lemon):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, apple, coconut, lemon. 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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