Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the meat
Cook the meat slowly for 2 hours in its own juices, adding water or gravy if it becomes dry.
Remove the cooked meat from the stewpan and keep it warm in a basin set over a saucepan of water.
Make the gravy
Add ½ cup of cold water to the stewpan to separate the fat, then remove the fat from the stewpan.
Add the minced onion to the stewpan and boil the onion until tender.
Stir in the curry powder, curry paste (or boiled apple), and flour mixed with 2 cups of milk.
Cook the gravy over heat until thickened.
Finish and serve
Add the meat and salt to taste, and let the mixture simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Serve with boiled rice.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 through slow cooking in its own juices.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base of the gravy and softens the curry flavour.
- Minced onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and body to the gravy as it softens.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the main spice aroma and flavour of the dish.
The step that matters
Thickening the gravy with flour and milk. Flour must be mixed smoothly with the milk before it goes into the hot pan, otherwise it clumps. Cooking it until thickened lets the starch swell and set the sauce.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, flour, milk, rice):
- Coconutfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, flour, milk, rice. 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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