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Curry Sandwich

A sandwich made with a curry-flavored egg mixture spread between buttered bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Curry Sandwich

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the eggs hard and place them in cold water.

  2. Once cold, shell the eggs and place the yolks in a mortar.

  3. Add butter, curry powder, breadcrumbs, essence of anchovy, and salt to the yolks.

  4. Pound to a smooth paste, gradually mixing in tarragon vinegar.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the curry mixture over half of the bread slices.

  2. Cover with the remaining slices, press together, and cut into fingers or strips.

  3. Arrange on a folded serviette or ornamental dish-paper and garnish with parsley.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Hard-boiled yolks form the bulk of the filling, giving it a rich, crumbly body.
Butter
Fat that softens the yolk paste and makes it smooth and spreadable.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the filling's flavour.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help thicken the paste so it holds together.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk mixture and balances its fat.

The step that matters

Pounding the paste smooth before adding vinegar. Yolks and butter must be worked into a smooth, even paste first; adding the vinegar gradually lets it emulsify in rather than making the mixture separate or runny.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, anchovy, vinegar, bread, parsley):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, anchovy, vinegar, bread, parsley. 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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