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Hindoostanee Curries

A beef, mutton, or veal curry marinated in yogurt and spices, then roasted over charcoal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Hindoostanee Curries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the bones from the meat and chop it slightly without mincing.

  2. Mix all ground condiments, mustard oil, yogurt, and lemon juice in a bowl.

  3. Steep the chopped meat in the mixture, turning occasionally for one hour.

  4. Cut the meat into 2‑inch squares and keep them in the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Skewer the meat squares and roast or broil over a slow charcoal fire, basting with ghee until browned.

  2. Remove from the skewer and 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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Ginger + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Turmeric + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef, mutton, or veal
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to tender, browned pieces.
Thick yogurt
Its acidity and thickness tenderize the meat and coat it in the marinade.
Lemon juice
Acidity helps tenderize the meat and brightens the flavor of the marinade.
Ghee
Fat that promotes browning and adds richness to the basting meat.

The step that matters

Basting with ghee until browned. Ghee added during roasting carries heat to the surface and encourages browning, while too slow a fire or too little basting can leave the meat dry or pale. Watching the color matters more than the clock.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, ginger, garlic, turmeric, yogurt, coriander):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, ginger, garlic, turmeric, yogurt, coriander. 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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