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Curried Veal

A veal curry with apple, onion, curry powder, and lemon juice, simmered for 1.5 hours and served with Patna rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Curried Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the veal into small pieces and remove any skin.

  2. Chop the apple and onion finely.

Make the curry

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Lightly fry the veal in the melted butter.

  3. Remove the veal to a plate.

  4. Fry the onion for a few seconds.

  5. Add the chopped apple to the onion.

  6. Add the rice flour to the mixture.

  7. Add the curry powder to the mixture.

  8. Mix the ingredients well.

  9. Gradually add the stock.

  10. Add a pinch of salt.

  11. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  12. Skim off any foam.

  13. Add the lemon juice.

  14. Add the curry paste.

  15. Return the veal to the sauce.

  16. Simmer for 1.5 hours, skimming and stirring frequently.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish with well-boiled Patna rice.

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. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

  5. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

Veal fillet
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long gentle simmer.
Rice flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the stock.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Apple
Adds subtle sweetness that softens the sharpness of the curry spices.
Light-colored stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and rich flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Foam rising from the meat and stock contains impurities that can make the sauce cloudy and bitter. Skimming it off keeps the sauce clean-tasting and clear while the veal cooks slowly for 1.5 hours.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, butter, rice, flour, lemon. 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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