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Curried Oysters

A curry sauce with oysters, onions, cocoa nut, tamarind or apple, tomatoes, and vegetable marrow, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tamarind and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 137 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Curried Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

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

Make the curry base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

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

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

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

  5. Add the grated cocoa nut and sour tamarinds or chopped apple.

  6. Simmer until the apple dissolves and the cocoa nut is tender.

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

Finish and serve

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

  2. Stir in the oysters with their liquor and cocoa nut milk.

  3. Gently stew for a few minutes, then add lemon juice.

  4. Serve with rice on the side.

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

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

  2. Tamarind + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 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. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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, sea-flavoured character to the curry.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the curry powder's aroma through the sauce.
Onion
Browning the slices builds a deep, sweet savoury base for the curry.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that defines the dish's flavour and aroma.
Cocoa nut
Its grated flesh and milk add body, moisture and a mild sweetness to the sauce.
Flour and water thickening
Thickens the liquid into a sauce with a smooth, coating texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the oysters with their liquor and cocoa nut milk. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and rubbery if overcooked, so they should be added near the end and only gently stewed until just heated through.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, onion, meat, tamarind, flour, tomato. 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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