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Mutton, Eggs and Pistachio Nut Curry

A curry of mutton, eggs, and pistachio nuts cooked with spices and lime juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and pistachio share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 78 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: flour

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into pieces.

  2. Slice the onions.

  3. In a pan, heat the butter.

  4. Fry the onions with salt, green ginger, and ground coriander.

  5. Remove ½ lb of the cooked meat.

  6. Set the removed meat aside.

  7. Add a little water to the remaining meat.

  8. Boil the meat until tender.

  9. Strain off the gravy.

Make the curry

  1. Stir the meat over the fire.

  2. Mix a little flour and water with the spices (except turmeric) ground to a paste.

  3. Boil gently.

  4. Take a quarter of the reserved meat.

  5. Whisk the egg whites with a little water.

  6. Add the whisked egg whites to the meat.

  7. Return the mixture to the heat.

  8. Add the remaining meat.

  9. Stir well.

  10. Stir in lime juice.

Serve

  1. Sprinkle with turmeric before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coriander + pistachiotop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Ginger + coriandertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,504 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pistachio + nutstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Onion + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,597 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,781 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main body of the dish as tender, slow-cooked meat.
Eggs
Whites are whisked and folded in to set and lighten the curry's texture.
Butter
Fat for frying the onions, carrying flavour and adding richness.
Onions
Softened by frying to build the base flavour and body of the gravy.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the spice paste so it clings to the meat and gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the whisked egg whites. Egg whites set when heated, so they must be added to the meat and returned to heat gently; too much heat or stirring can make them curdle into uneven lumps.

Flavor stand-ins for the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, egg, butter, onion, ginger, pistachio, nuts):

  1. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  2. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, egg, butter, onion, ginger, pistachio, nuts. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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