Skip to main content
Main

Another Malay Curry

A curry of chicken simmered with almond cream, onion, lemon rind, turmeric, cayenne, water, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Another Malay Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch the almonds and fry them until brown, but not blackened.

  2. Pound the almonds to a cream with the onion and lemon rind.

  3. Mix the turmeric and cayenne pepper in the water.

Cook the curry

  1. Combine the chicken, almond cream, and spice mixture in a stewpan.

  2. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes.

  3. Add the cream and bring to a boil.

  4. Squeeze in the lemon juice before serving.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Turmeric + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Almond + turmerictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Pounded into a cream that thickens the curry and gives it a nutty body.
Chicken
Provides the main protein; simmering in the sauce tenderises it and absorbs its flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Turmeric
Gives the curry its golden colour and an earthy aroma.
Onion
Pounded with the almonds, adding body and savoury sweetness to the base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the almonds. Almonds go from brown to bitter and acrid within moments. Frying only until golden keeps their flavour sweet and nutty, and it carries into the finished curry.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, lemon, chicken, turmeric, pepper, cream):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Cashew nutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, lemon, chicken, turmeric, pepper, cream. 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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes