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Curried Oysters

A spicy oyster stew with onions, curry, cocoa-nut, apple, tomatoes, and lemon, served with fried bread and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry base

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter over medium heat and fry the sliced onion until browned.

  2. Stir in curry powder and more butter if needed, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add broth and cover the pan, bringing it to a boil.

  4. Add grated cocoa-nut and chopped apple (or tamarinds) and simmer until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix flour with a little water and stir into the mixture, seasoning with salt.

  2. Boil for five minutes, then add tomatoes, oysters, and cocoa-nut milk, stirring occasionally.

  3. Squeeze in lemon juice, serve the curry on a hot dish, garnished with fried bread, alongside 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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Cocoa + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, 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

Oysters
Main protein that cooks briefly in the curry, becoming tender and absorbing its flavour.
Curry powder
Provides the main spice aroma and flavour of the dish.
Butter
Carries the curry spices and adds richness when the onion is fried.
Spanish onion
Browns in butter to build a sweet, savoury base for the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the curry liquid into a smoother, more cohesive sauce.
Cocoa-nut
Adds body, sweetness and moisture through its grated flesh and milk.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters. Oysters overcook quickly and turn rubbery when boiled too long, so they should go in near the end and only heat through in the simmering sauce.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, apple, flour, tomato, oyster, 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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