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Curried Oysters

A curry of oysters simmered with onions, butter, curry powder, cocoa‑nut, tamarind or apple, and thickened with flour and water.

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 onion and fry until rich brown.

  3. Stir in more butter and 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.

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

Finish and serve

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

  2. Let the curry stew gently for a few minutes.

  3. Add the lemon juice and stir occasionally.

  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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tamarind + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Sea oysters
Provide the main protein and a briny, savoury flavour to the curry.
Butter
Carries the curry powder's flavour and adds richness to the sauce.
Onion
Frying until rich brown builds sweetness and savoury depth for the base.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice aroma and colour of the curry.
Cocoa-nut
Grated meat and its milk add body, sweetness and creaminess to the sauce.
Flour and water thickening
Thickens the liquid so the curry sauce clings to the oysters.

The step that matters

Stir in the oysters with their liquor and cocoa‑nut milk. Oysters cook very quickly and turn rubbery when overheated. Adding them near the end and simmering gently keeps them tender and juicy.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Cocoathe 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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