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Curry of Lamb

A lamb curry made with butter, onion, tomato ketchup, flour, curry powder, and stock, served with rice balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curry of Lamb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove all fat and skin from the meat and cut it into thin slices. Season with salt and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and tomato ketchup, and cook slowly for 10 minutes.

  2. Stir in the flour and curry powder until smooth. Gradually add the stock and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain the sauce into a skillet, add the sliced meat, and cook for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with rice balls.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Lamb + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together979 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 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

Lamb, beef, or veal
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it cooks in the sauce.
Butter
Carries the onion and spices and adds richness to the sauce.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks slowly, building the base flavour of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spiced aroma and flavour of the dish.
Stock
Forms the liquid that the flour thickens and that cooks the meat.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour and curry powder until smooth, then add the stock gradually. Adding liquid slowly while stirring lets the flour disperse evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, well-thickened sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, pepper, butter, onion, ketchup, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, pepper, butter, onion, ketchup, flour. 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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