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Curried Oysters

A curry-flavored oyster stew with coconut, tomatoes, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and tamarind match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 151 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Curried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Open the oysters into a basin, keeping their liquor.

  2. In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the sliced onion and fry until rich brown.

  4. Stir in more butter and the curry powder, mixing well.

Make the curry

  1. Gradually add hot water or broth, cover, and bring to a boil.

  2. Add grated coconut and sour tamarinds or chopped apple, and simmer until tender.

  3. Mix in the thickening and salt, then boil for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the boiled vegetable marrow and tomatoes, if using.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the oysters with their liquor and coconut milk, and simmer gently.

  2. Add the lemon juice, stir occasionally, and serve with 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. Coconut + tamarindtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Tamarind + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tamarindtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Coconut + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main protein and a briny, savoury flavour that the curry carries.
Onion
Frying until rich brown builds sweetness and depth as the base of the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and colour that define the dish.
Coconut meat
Adds richness, body and a mild sweetness to the sauce.
Flour and water thickening
Thickens the sauce to a smooth, coating consistency.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that balance the rich coconut and spices.

The step that matters

Stirring in the oysters and simmering gently. Oysters cook very quickly and turn rubbery and tough if boiled hard. Adding them late and keeping the heat gentle keeps them tender and juicy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, onion, coconut, meat, tamarind, 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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