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Curry of Cold Meat

A curry made by sautéing onions, adding curry powder, then mixing in diced cold meat and simmering in water or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Curry of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Heat oil or butter in a pan.

  2. Add chopped onion and sauté until soft.

  3. Stir in curry powder and cook for 1 minute.

  4. Add diced cold meat and stir to coat.

  5. Pour in water or stock to cover meat.

  6. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until heated through.

  7. Serve hot.

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 + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. 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

Cold cooked meat
Forms the body of the dish and is gently reheated in the sauce.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding a savoury base to the curry.
Curry powder
Blooms in hot fat to release aroma and flavour through the dish.
Water or stock
Liquid that moistens the meat and carries the curry flavour as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cooking the curry powder in the hot fat. Stirring the spice into hot oil or butter for a short time releases its fat-soluble aromas. Adding liquid too soon can leave the powder tasting raw and dusty.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter. 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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