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Bengal Curry

A curry made with onions, coriander, red pepper, turmeric, butter, curds, cocoa-nut, and meat, simmered with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

Prepare the spice paste

  1. In a mortar, grind the coriander seeds until smooth.

  2. Add the red pepper and onions, and pound together until well mixed.

Cook the curry

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and slice an onion into it.

  2. Remove the onion once browned, then add the turmeric and fry until fragrant.

  3. Mix the curds with the pounded ingredients and add to the pan with the meat.

  4. Stir in the grated cocoa-nut and salt, and stir the stew continually.

  5. Sprinkle water as needed 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.

  1. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + turmerictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,913 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that fries the onion and carries the spices, giving a rich, browned base.
Curds
Adds tang and moisture, and its proteins help thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Onions
Soften and brown to build sweetness and body in the paste and the stew.
Coriander seeds
Provide the main warm, citrusy aroma of the spice blend.
Turmeric
Adds earthy flavour and a golden colour when fried in fat.
Grated cocoa-nut
Adds richness and body to the sauce as it simmers with the meat.

The step that matters

Stirring the stew continually while the meat browns. Sugars and proteins in the onions, curds and meat can scorch on the pan base; constant stirring and added water spread the heat and prevent burning.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, coriander, butter, turmeric, meat. 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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