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Soup

Mullagatawny Soup

A curry-flavored soup made with chicken, veal, onions, garlic, butter, coriander seed, curry powder, browned flour, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Mullagatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces or joints.

  2. Simmer the meat in ½ gallon of water to make a strong stock.

Make the soup

  1. Fry the onions and garlic in 2 ounces of butter until golden.

  2. Pound and mix the coriander seed with curry powder and browned flour.

  3. Add the mixture to the stock half an hour before serving.

  4. Add lemon juice just before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + coriandertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,850 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  4. Clove + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main meat and flavor for the stock.
Veal knuckle
Adds body and gelatin to the stock, giving it a richer mouthfeel.
Onions
Frying until golden builds sweetness and savory depth in the soup.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup slightly and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Curry powder
Supplies the curry flavor that defines the soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock just before serving.

The step that matters

Add the spice mixture half an hour before serving. Ground spices release aroma and flavor gradually in hot liquid, but raw or bitter flavors remain if they are added too late or cooked too long. Timing the addition lets the curry flavor blend without turning harsh or dull.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, onion, garlic, butter, coriander, flour):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, onion, garlic, butter, coriander, flour. 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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