The chemistry of a curry

Asian and western cuisines don’t follow the same flavour rules. This disparity was identified in 2011 by researchers at Northeastern University in Boston, US. The team was studying over 55,000 recipes from around the world to seek evidence for the so-called food pairing hypothesis – the long-standing assumption that ingredients with shared flavour molecules are more likely to taste nice together than ingredients that do not. The more flavour compounds two ingredients shared, the less likely they were to be used together. An Indian-specific follow-up study probed 2543 curry recipes and found the same thing. Ultimately, big data insight such as this is expected to revolutionise the food industry – including curry sauce recipes.

Science reveals the secrets behind you need to toast or fry spices before making a curry; whether water, milk or alcohol is better for calming that chilli burn; how to make the perfect fluffy rice; and why onions make you cry.