Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Curry Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
Remove all fat from the liquor in which the tongue was cooked.
Season the liquor and let it boil for 1 hour with the chopped onion and celery.
Strain out the solids and add the soaked rice to the soup.
Finish the soup
Cook the rice until tender.
10 minutes before serving, stir in the curry powder and let it simmer until needed.
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.
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,169 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Liquor from cooked tongue
- Forms the savoury liquid base that gives the soup its body and main flavour.
- Rice
- Absorbs liquid and softens, adding body and thickening the soup.
- Curry powder
- Supplies warm, aromatic spice flavour that develops as it heats in the liquid.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness to the broth as it simmers.
- Celery
- Contributes a fresh, vegetal aroma to the broth.
The step that matters
Adding the curry powder late. Curry powder is added only 10 minutes before serving so its aromatic compounds release into the hot liquid without being overcooked. Adding it too early over a long boil can dull its aroma and make the spice taste flat or bitter.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, rice):
- Carrotfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, rice. 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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