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A simmered vegetable curry with cucumber, mushrooms, onion, curry powder, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the minced onion and cook until soft.

  3. Stir in the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.

Simmer the curry

  1. Add the cucumbers, curry powder, and pepper.

  2. Pour in enough water to cover the vegetables.

  3. Simmer for 2 hours.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumbers
Provide the main bulk and moisture, softening into a tender, mild-flavoured curry as they simmer.
Mushrooms
Add savoury depth and a meaty texture that holds up to long simmering.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm spice aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the flavour base of the curry.
Butter
Carries fat-soluble flavour from the spices and gives the base a rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Simmer for 2 hours. Cucumbers contain a lot of water and soft cell walls, so long cooking can turn them mushy and dilute the sauce. Keep the heat low and check the texture as it cooks.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, onion, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, onion, butter, pepper. 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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