Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,030 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Mulligatawny Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice and fry the onions until nicely colored.
Line a large pot with the bacon.
Brown the rabbit or fowl pieces slightly.
Make the soup
Add the fried onions, garlic, and stock to the pot.
Simmer gently until the meat is tender, skimming carefully.
Rub the curry powder into a smooth batter and add it to the soup.
Pound the almonds with a little stock and add them to the soup.
Season with lemon pickle or mango juice to taste.
Serve
Serve with boiled rice.
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.
-
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Garlic + rabbittop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together217 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
-
Garlic + lemontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,862 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Onion + rabbittop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,291 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Almond + rabbittop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together55 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Curry powder
- Provides the main spice flavor, bloomed into a batter so it blends smoothly into the soup.
- Onions
- Fried until colored, they add sweetness and deep savory browning to the base.
- Pounded almonds
- Thicken the soup slightly and add a nutty richness and body.
- Fowl or rabbit
- Supplies the meat that becomes tender during slow simmering, enriching the broth.
- Bacon
- Lines the pot to add smoky, fatty flavor to the stock.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries all the flavors of the soup.
The step that matters
Simmer gently until the meat is tender, skimming carefully. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and the broth clear. A hard boil toughens proteins and emulsifies fat and impurities into the liquid, so skimming foam regularly keeps the soup clean and clear.
Flavor stand-ins for the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, lemon, rabbit):
- Beansbetter flavor fit
- Sesamebetter flavor fit
- Chickpeabetter flavor fit
- Almondthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, lemon, rabbit. 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.
More mulligatawny soup recipes
You might also like
Lemon Sauce236 recipes
Almond Soup60 recipes
Almond Salad6 recipes
Rabbit Patties6 recipesThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.