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Curry of Veal, a LA Calcutta

A veal curry simmered with onion, curry powder, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Curry of Veal, a LA Calcutta

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat oil or butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add minced onion and veal cut into small, even pieces.

  3. Cover and stew without water until the meat begins to brown.

  4. Sprinkle curry powder over the meat and stir.

  5. Add enough water to cover the meat and simmer until cooked.

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 + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  3. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the meat that becomes tender during stewing and simmering.
Onion
Adds sweetness and a savory base as it softens in the fat.
Curry powder
Adds the spiced aroma and flavor that defines the curry.
Oil or butter
Carries heat evenly and helps the meat brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Stew without water until the meat begins to brown. Browning the meat in fat before adding liquid builds deep, savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Adding water too early makes the meat steam and turn grey, losing that flavor.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter. 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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