Why it works: Rice and onion 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 ↓
Curried Tripe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tripe
Blanch the tripe by boiling it in cold water, then remove the tripe immediately.
Cut the tripe into small pieces and place them in a saucepan.
Cover with cold water.
Peel the onion and cut it partially through.
Add the onion to the saucepan.
Simmer
Bring the saucepan to a boil, then reduce the heat.
Simmer for 2.5 hours, until the tripe is very tender when checked with a fork.
Remove the saucepan from the heat.
Set it on a paper on the table.
Use a fork to take the tripe pieces out and place them on a dish.
Make the curry sauce
In a small saucepan, mix the flour, curry powder, and dripping with a wooden spoon.
Add enough cold water to make a stiff paste.
Pour in ½ pint of the liquid from boiling the tripe.
Heat the mixture, stirring until it boils and thickens without getting lumpy.
Stir in the brown sugar and salt to taste.
Set aside to cool.
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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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 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
- Tripe
- Its connective tissue softens during long simmering, making the meat tender.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats with the liquid, giving body to the curry.
- Curry powder
- Provides the spiced aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
- Dripping
- Fat that carries the curry flavours and coats the flour for a smooth roux.
- Patna rice
- Starch that is typically served alongside the curry as a base.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering liquid.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour paste into the hot liquid. Flour added to liquid can clump if not blended into a smooth paste first and stirred constantly while it heats. Stirring keeps starch granules dispersed so they swell evenly and the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, flour, sugar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, flour, sugar. 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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