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Curry

A curry made with diced rump steak, onions, apple, curry powder, cayenne pepper, and stock, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Curry

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 ↓

Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the rump steak into dice-sized pieces.

  2. Fry the steak in butter until nicely colored and half cooked.

Make the curry

  1. Fry the onions and apple in the same pan until rich red-brown.

  2. Add curry powder, cayenne, and salt; fry briefly.

  3. Pour in boiling water or stock, then add the meat.

  4. Stew gently until the sauce thickens and the meat is tender.

Serve

  1. Serve with 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.

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.

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

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  4. Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 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

Rump steak
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the gentle stewing.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the steak and carries the curry flavours.
Onions
Soften and brown in the pan, adding sweetness and depth to the sauce.
Apple
Frying softens it and adds mild sweetness that balances the curry spices.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spice aroma and flavour of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the sauce thickens and the meat is tender. Rump steak is a lean, tough cut that needs slow, low-heat simmering so its connective tissue breaks down. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and scorch the sauce.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper, 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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