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Browned Mutton Curry

A browned mutton curry baked with a rice border, finished with a beaten egg glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Browned Mutton Curry

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Add the rice to boiling water and boil for 25 minutes.

  3. Drain the rice in a colander.

Make the curry

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan and stir in the flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add 2 cups of boiling water, stirring until smooth.

  3. When the mixture is boiling, add the mutton, curry powder, and salt.

  4. Stir for 10 minutes.

Shape and brown

  1. Heap the mixture in the center of a fire-proof flat dish.

  2. Make a border of rice around the meat.

  3. Brush the entire dish with beaten egg.

  4. Place it in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned, about 5 to 10 minutes.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  4. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main protein and savoury meaty flavour of the dish.
Rice
Forms the border around the meat and adds starchy bulk to the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the flour roux that starts the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter.
Egg
Brushed on the surface, it helps the top brown in the oven.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma and flavour that defines the curry.

The step that matters

Brush with beaten egg before baking. The egg coating promotes browning through Maillard reactions and gives the top a glossy finish. Spreading it evenly ensures uniform colour rather than pale patches.

“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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