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India Curry and Rice

A lamb curry with banana, apple, and curry powder served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 435 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

India Curry and Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Brown and fry

  1. Brown the onions and lamb chops in a frying pan.

  2. Slice the banana and apple.

  3. Fry the sliced banana and apple with the lamb and onions.

  4. Add the curry powder and lemon juice.

  5. Fry for about 15 minutes.

Simmer the curry

  1. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan.

  2. Cover with water.

  3. Cook slowly for 1.5 hours.

  4. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

  5. Thicken the curry with cornstarch before serving.

Cook the rice and serve

  1. Boil the rice in salted water for about 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the rice.

  3. Arrange the rice around the platter.

  4. Place the curry in the center.

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. Banana + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together435 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lamb + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb chops
Provides the main meat, which browns for flavor and becomes tender during slow cooking.
Onions
Break down during long cooking to add sweetness and body to the sauce.
Banana
Softens into the sauce, adding sweetness and a thicker, mellow texture.
Apple
Adds sweetness and mild fruity tartness that balances the spices.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm, aromatic spice flavor that defines the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced flavors.

The step that matters

Cook the curry slowly for 1.5 hours. A gentle, low simmer lets the tough connective tissue in the lamb break down into tender meat while the onions and fruit soften into the sauce. Boiling hard toughens the meat and can scorch the bottom of the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, banana, apple, pepper, lemon, rice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, banana, apple, pepper, lemon, 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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