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Curry

A curry made with cold meat, apple, onion, curry powder, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Curry

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the clarified dripping or butter in a saucepan.

  2. Peel and finely chop the onion.

  3. Cut the cold meat into small pieces.

  4. Peel, core, and finely chop the apple.

Make the curry

  1. Add the chopped onion to the hot dripping and brown it carefully, shaking the saucepan occasionally to prevent sticking.

  2. Strain the browned onion and return the dripping to the saucepan.

  3. Add the cold meat to the saucepan and brown on both sides.

  4. Stir in the curry powder, flour, chopped apple, and salt to taste.

  5. Pour in the cold water and add the browned onion back to the saucepan.

  6. Stir until it boils, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid off to reduce the sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Cold meat
Provides the main body of the dish and absorbs the curry flavour as it simmers.
Apple
Adds sweetness and a mild acidity that balances the curry powder.
Onion
Browns to build sweetness and savoury depth in the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce as it simmers.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice flavour and aroma that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Browning the onion carefully. Onion that burns turns bitter and dark, which spoils the whole sauce. Gentle browning over moderate heat, with occasional shaking, lets its sugars caramelise into sweet, savoury flavour.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, onion, flour. 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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