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Modern Cookery

A curry of cucumbers, onions, and optional mushrooms cooked in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

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

Add the vegetables and cook

  1. Chop the cucumbers and onion, then add to the pan.

  2. If using, add the minced mushrooms.

  3. Cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  4. Cucumber + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 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

Butter
Carries the curry powder's aroma and gives the sauce richness.
Curry powder
Provides the spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Cucumbers
Release water as they cook, giving the sauce moisture and a soft texture.
Onion
Softens and turns sweet as it cooks, adding body to the sauce.
Minced mushrooms
Add savoury depth and some body to the sauce.

The step that matters

The long, occasionally stirred cook. Cucumbers are mostly water and break down over a long cook, so the dish can turn mushy. Stirring occasionally keeps the solids from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan during the two hours.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, mushroom):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, mushroom. 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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