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Curried Beef

A dish of beef simmered in butter, onions, curry powder, milk, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curry

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onions and fry until light brown.

  3. Stir in the curry powder and mix well.

  4. Add the beef pieces and pour in the milk.

  5. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice.

Serve

  1. Serve with a wall of mashed potatoes or rice.

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 + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender during the long, gentle simmer.
Onions
Frying until light brown builds sweetness and savory depth that underpins the sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aromas that define the dish's flavor.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, softening the spices into a creamy sauce.
Butter
Carries the spices and onions, adding fat and a rounded flavor.

The step that matters

Simmering with constant stirring. Milk-based sauces scorch easily on the bottom of the pan, and the milk can curdle or stick if heat is too high or stirring stops. Gentle heat and steady stirring keep the sauce smooth during the 30-minute simmer.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, beef, milk. 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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