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A Curry of Cold Meat

A curry made with cold meat, stock, flour, curry powder, apple or green gooseberries, onion, and fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,364 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Curry of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry base

  1. Heat the dripping in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the minced onion until brown.

  3. Add the minced apple to the pan and fry until softened.

Finish the curry

  1. In a bowl, mix the curry powder and flour with the stock or water until smooth.

  2. Pour the mixture into the pan and stir until it boils.

  3. Add salt to taste.

  4. Add the cold meat to the pan and heat through without boiling.

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. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  2. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 recipes

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

  4. Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,140 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + appletop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together787 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Is the main ingredient, gently reheated in the sauce without toughening.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour of the curry.
Sour apple
Adds acidity and a fruity tartness that balances the richness of the fat.
Onion
Builds a savoury, browned sweetness as the base flavour.
Dripping
Carries the spices and onion and adds richness to the sauce.

The step that matters

Heat through without boiling. Once the meat is back in the sauce, a rolling boil can toughen the proteins and make it dry and stringy. Gentle heat warms it through while keeping it tender.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, onion. 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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