Skip to main content
Starter

Curry Soup

A hearty soup made with ox cheek, onions, herbs, rice, and curry seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Curry Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Soak the ox cheek meat well.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the meat, sliced onions, pot herbs, and water.

  3. Remove the scum frequently and strain the mixture.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the soaked rice, curry powder, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Stew for 4 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. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  4. Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,481 recipes

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

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 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

Ox-cheek meat
Breaks down during long stewing to give the broth body and savoury richness.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they simmer, adding depth to the broth.
Soaked rice
Swells and thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it body.
Curry powder
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses the broth during stewing.

The step that matters

Removing the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities rising from the meat; skimming it frequently keeps the broth clear and free of bitter, muddy flavours.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, 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.

More curry soup recipes

Veal 15Rabbit 13Chicken 3Indian 3Mild 3Vegetable 3 See all 35 →

You might also like

Deviled OystersDeviled Oysters25 recipes