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Beef or Mutton Curry

A curry made with tinned beef or mutton, apple, and curry powder, served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef or Mutton Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Boil down any jelly or trimmings for gravy.

Make the curry sauce

  1. Heat the butter or dripping in a stewpan.

  2. Fry the onion until brown.

  3. Add the flour and curry powder, and stir.

  4. Cook for about 5 minutes.

  5. Add the apple.

  6. Add the stock and stir until the mixture boils.

  7. Cover closely and simmer for about 30 minutes.

  8. Strain.

  9. Return the mixture to the stewpan and bring nearly to boiling point.

  10. Add the lemon juice and season to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the meat and let it sit in the hot sauce for about 20 minutes without boiling.

  2. Serve in a border of boiled 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Tinned beef or mutton
Provides the meat, which becomes tender as it sits in the hot sauce.
Butter or dripping
Carries the curry powder and onion, adding fat and rich flavour.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the fat.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice flavour and aroma of the dish.
Onion
Browns in the fat to add sweetness and savoury depth.
Apple
Adds mild sweetness and acidity that balance the curry spices.

The step that matters

Letting the meat sit without boiling. Boiling the sauce again after the meat is added can toughen the meat and make it dry. Holding it just below a boil lets it warm through gently and stay tender.

Swap the apple

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

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

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