Name: Bengal Curry
Ingredients: 1 drachm (1 teaspoon) of red pepper; 6 onions; 1 oz. (2 tablespoons) of coriander seeds, husked; 3 lb. of butter; 2 drachms (2 teaspoons) of turmeric; ½ pint (1 cup) of curds; 2 oz. (¼ cup) of grated coconut; coarse sea salt to taste; water as needed

Why it works: Coriander and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,253 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bengal Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Grind the coriander seeds in a mortar until smooth.
Add the ground coriander and onions, mixing well.
In a stewpan, melt the butter and slice an onion into it.
Remove the onion when browned, then add turmeric and fry until fragrant.
Mix the curds with the pounded ingredients and add to the pan with meat pieces.
Add grated coconut and salt, stirring continuously.
Sprinkle water to prevent burning while the meat browns.

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.

Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,253 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Turmeric + coconuttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,027 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Coriander + coconuttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,039 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,478 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,949 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, coriander, butter, turmeric, coconut):

Capsicumfits better
Sweet potatofits better
Okrafits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, coriander, butter, turmeric, coconut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.