Massaman curry around the world
95 massaman curry recipes in 4 languages: English 53, Dutch 18, German 16 and French 8. Each is reduced to grams per can of coconut milk, the same as everywhere in the lab, so a French page and an American one line up. English, the largest group, is the one the others are compared with.
The language is the page's, not the cook's country: a French page may be from Quebec, a Portuguese one from Brazil, a Dutch one from Belgium. Each language's lines are read in its own words and units, and a recipe that gives “a pinch” of salt counts a pinch.
Where they part from English
The clearest differences for each language, medians per can of coconut milk. Only differences large enough to matter and unlikely to be chance are listed (how below).
- Dutch 18 recipesMost Dutch recipes use no onions (72%, against 24% of English recipes).
German (16) and French (8) show no clear difference from English on any ingredient.
Every ingredient, language by language
Grams per can of coconut milk. One row a language, largest first.
middle half, and the median (the number at right; when most use none, the share that uses any)middle half of every recipesmall number after a name: recipes
The typical pot in each language
The median of each language's recipes for every ingredient, scaled to 1 can. No single recipe is exactly this. Under each, the recipe nearest its language's medians.
English53
- Coconut milk
- 1 can
- Curry paste
- 50 g
- Meat, fish or tofu
- 380 g
- Potatoes
- 300 g
- Onions
- 60 g
- Peanuts
- 24 g
- Fish or soy sauce
- 18 g
- Tamarind or lime
- 14 g
- Sugar
- 9 g
Dutch18
- Coconut milk
- 1 can
- Curry paste
- 44 g
- Meat, fish or tofu
- 335 g
- Potatoes
- 195 g
- Onions
- none
- Peanuts
- 27 g
- Fish or soy sauce
- 18 g
- Tamarind or lime
- 14 g
- Sugar
- 9 g
German16
- Coconut milk
- 1 can
- Curry paste
- 32 g
- Meat, fish or tofu
- 295 g
- Potatoes
- 405 g
- Onions
- 60 g
- Peanuts
- 19 g
- Fish or soy sauce
- none
- Tamarind or lime
- none
- Sugar
- 8 g
French8
- Coconut milk
- 1 can
- Curry paste
- 29 g
- Meat, fish or tofu
- 265 g
- Potatoes
- 445 g
- Onions
- 130 g
- Peanuts
- none
- Fish or soy sauce
- none
- Tamarind or lime
- 14 g
- Sugar
- none
The medians and middle halves as a table
| Language | Curry paste | Meat, fish or tofu | Potatoes | Onions | Peanuts | Fish or soy sauce | Tamarind or lime | Sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English 53 | 50 g32 g to 107 g | 378 g222 g to 640 g | 300 g210 g to 426 g | 58 g10 g to 109 g | 24 g0 g to 35 g | 18 g5.3 g to 30 g | 14 g0 g to 24 g | 8.7 g0 g to 14 g |
| Dutch 18 | 44 g25 g to 68 g | 335 g46 g to 549 g | 197 g26 g to 420 g | 0 g0 g to 15 g | 27 g0 g to 49 g | 18 g0 g to 34 g | 14 g0 g to 24 g | 8.7 g0 g to 13 g |
| German 16 | 32 g24 g to 45 g | 295 g0 g to 493 g | 407 g228 g to 714 g | 60 g16 g to 217 g | 19 g0 g to 40 g | 4.5 g0 g to 18 g | 0 g0 g to 19 g | 7.8 g0 g to 12 g |
| French 8 | 29 g0 g to 53 g | 264 g0 g to 592 g | 447 g299 g to 657 g | 130 g41 g to 244 g | 0 g0 g to 39 g | 0 g0 g to 4.4 g | 14 g0 g to 20 g | 2.3 g0 g to 8.3 g |
How the comparison works
A language gets a row with at least 8 recipes. Each is compared with the English recipes on every ingredient, and a difference is listed only when it clears two bars: the medians sit at least a third of the middle half of all recipes apart (about half a standard deviation, a medium effect), and a rank test puts the gap at 3 standard errors or more, so a language with few recipes needs a large difference. For an ingredient many recipes skip, the share using none counts too: at least 25 points apart, at the same 3 standard errors.
Every ingredient is tested for every language, a few dozen tests per lab, which is why the bar is higher than the usual two standard errors. Salt is listed last when it differs: many recipes give it as a pinch or leave it to taste. Shares and “more than” percentages are rounded down, so none is an overstatement.
These are what recipe writers in each language do, not rules of each country's cooking. A language with 8 to 20 recipes may come mostly from a few sites; each recipe page names its source.