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Curried Boos

A curry sauce with boiled eggs simmered in butter, onions, broth, cream, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Curried Boos

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Boil the eggs hard, then let them cool.

Make the curry sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix the butter and curry powder over moderate heat for a few minutes.

  2. Add the minced onions and fry gently until soft.

  3. Gradually pour in the broth or gravy and stew until reduced to pulp.

  4. Mix the cream with the flour.

  5. Stir the mixture into the curry.

  6. Simmer until the raw taste is gone.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the eggs into half‑inch slices.

  2. Heat the sliced eggs in the sauce without boiling.

  3. Serve hot.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the main body of the dish, holding their shape while gently heated in the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
Butter
Carries the curry powder's fat-soluble flavours and adds richness to the sauce.
Mild onions
Soften into the sauce, adding sweetness and body as they fry.
Broth or gravy
Forms the liquid base, which reduces to a thick, flavourful sauce.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Heat the sliced eggs in the sauce without boiling. Boiling a sauce containing cream and egg can cause it to curdle and turn grainy, and it can toughen the egg whites. Gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and the eggs tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, wheat. 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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