Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,046 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Mulligatawny Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Prepare the vegetables: cut carrots and turnips into small pieces, slice onions, dice leeks, and chop lettuce.
Make the soup
In a large kettle, boil down the beef essence to half its volume.
Add beef stock, mushroom ketchup, salt, white pepper, mace, and curry powder to the kettle.
Mix thoroughly and boil for one hour, stirring well.
Can and process
Fill two-pound cans with 6 ounces of mixed vegetables and top with soup to weigh 2 pounds and 1 ounce.
Wipe the cans, cap them with vents open, and place them in the retort.
Close the retort tightly and process at 2 pounds pressure for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
After processing, release the pressure slowly, remove the cans, and seal the vents quickly.
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.
-
Turnip + leektop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beef + mushroomtop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,231 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,001 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + lettucetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together526 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Leek + lettucetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together217 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and body, and hold their shape as the soup is processed.
- Onions
- Build savory depth and sweetness as they soften in the stock.
- Beef essence
- Concentrates the beef flavor that forms the base of the soup.
- Beef stock
- Adds liquid and savory meat flavor to the soup body.
- Curry powder
- Provides the spiced aroma that characterizes the mulligatawny flavor.
The step that matters
Releasing the pressure slowly after processing. Cans that are depressurized too fast can boil violently, pushing contents out through the vents and leaving the seal incomplete. Slow release keeps the soup inside and lets the cans settle before sealing.
Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, leek, beef, mushroom, ketchup):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Chivebetter flavor fit
- Shallotbetter flavor fit
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, leek, beef, mushroom, ketchup. 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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