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Tulister Curry

A lobster curry made with onions, butter, curry powder, stock, and lemon juice, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tulister Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. Fry the sliced onions in butter until pale brown.

  2. Stir in the curry powder and medium stock, then simmer until thickened.

  3. Add the lobster pieces and stew for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Just before serving, stir in the lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled rice.

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. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,481 recipes

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

  4. Lobster + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together909 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Onion + buttertop 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

Lobster
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it stews in the sauce.
Onions
Soften and brown in butter, adding sweetness and a savoury base to the sauce.
Butter
Carries the onion frying and adds richness and browning flavour to the base.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that gives the sauce its characteristic aroma and flavour.
Medium stock
Forms the liquid that the curry powder is simmered in, thickening into a sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced sauce just before serving.

The step that matters

Adding the lobster and stewing. Lobster meat turns rubbery and tough if overcooked, so keep the stew gentle and stir occasionally so the pieces cook evenly without breaking apart.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, meat, onion, butter, 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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