Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Curry. No. 7
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the meat into slices.
In a pan, half fry the meat with the onions in butter.
Add the curry powder and fry for a little longer.
Stir in the salt and water, then let it stew until the meat is done.
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.
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it stews in the sauce.
- Onions
- Soften and sweeten as they fry, forming the base flavour of the curry.
- Butter
- Carries the curry powder's flavour and adds richness while frying the meat and onions.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its characteristic aroma and flavour.
- Water
- Makes the liquid in which the meat stews, keeping it moist as it cooks.
The step that matters
Frying the curry powder. Curry powder needs a short fry in fat before the liquid goes in, which wakes up its aromatic compounds. Adding it to liquid without frying leaves the spice tasting flat and raw.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter. 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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