Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
A Fowl Curried Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fowl
Skin the fowl.
If the fowl is old, simmer it in water for 2 hours with 1 chopped onion.
Cook the curry
Add 3 tablespoons of whole rice, 2 tablespoons of curry powder, and 2 chopped onions.
Boil the mixture for about 30 minutes.
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.
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Whole fowl
- Provides the meat, which becomes tender through long simmering when the bird is old.
- Whole rice
- Releases starch as it cooks, which helps thicken the curry sauce.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice blend that gives the curry its main flavour and aroma.
- Onions
- Soften and break down during cooking, adding body and gentle sweetness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Simmering an old fowl for 2 hours. Older birds have tougher muscle and connective tissue, which needs long, gentle simmering in liquid to break down and become tender. Cutting this short leaves the meat chewy.
“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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