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Prawns, Curry of

A prawn curry made with butter, curry powder, flour, apple, onion, coconut, lemon juice, stock, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Prawns, Curry of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shell the prawns and set them aside.

  2. Melt the butter in a stew pan.

Make the curry

  1. Fry the onion until soft but not browned.

  2. Add the curry powder and flour, stirring well.

  3. Mix in the chopped apple, grated coconut, and lemon juice.

  4. Pour in the stock and bring to a simmer.

  5. Add the prawns and cook until they are pink and cooked through.

  6. Season with salt to taste.

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. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylethanol (rose, floral).

  4. Onion + coconuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,831 recipes

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

  5. Coconut + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Prawns
Provide the main protein, which turns pink and firm when cooked through.
Butter
Carries the curry spices and adds richness and a rounded flavour.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spiced aroma and flavour of the dish.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by absorbing the fat and liquid as it cooks.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and a tart sweetness that balances the spices.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the other flavours.

The step that matters

Add the prawns and cook until pink and cooked through. Prawns overcook quickly in a simmering liquid, becoming rubbery and tough. Adding them near the end and watching for pink, opaque flesh keeps them tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, apple, coconut, lemon):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, apple, coconut, 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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