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Curry Savoury

A baked casserole of rice, lentils, tomatoes, curry powder, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curry Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice and lentils together until tender, then let them cool slightly.

  2. Slice the tomatoes and place them in a pie dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the curry powder, beaten eggs, and salt with the rice and lentils; add milk if necessary.

  2. Spread the mixture over the tomatoes and dot with butter.

  3. Bake for 30 to 60 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Lentils + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Rice + lentilstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the rice and lentil mixture and help it set into a firm custard-like layer.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface and helps it brown in the oven.
Lentils
Provide protein-rich body and a firm, tender texture that holds the savory filling together.
Rice
Adds bulk and a soft texture that absorbs the flavors of the curry powder.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity that balances the curry spices beneath the baked layer.

The step that matters

Adding milk to the mixture. Eggs set when heated, so the mixture should be loose enough to spread but not so wet that it stays runny after baking. Add milk only if needed, a little at a time, to control the final texture.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, tomato, egg, butter, milk):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Peasfits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, tomato, egg, butter, milk. 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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