Name: Mango Soup
Ingredients: small tender mangoes; 1 tablespoon mustard seeds; 1 tablespoon panch-foron; 1 tablespoon oil; 2 cups water; 1 tablespoon mustard paste; 1 cup mango pieces; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Why it works: Mango and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 136 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Mango Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mangoes

Peel the mangoes and cut them into small thin pieces, discarding the seeds.

Make the soup

Fry mustard seeds and panch‑foron in oil until fragrant.
Add water and bring to a boil.
Stir in mustard paste, mango pieces, and salt.
Cook until the mango pieces are tender, then remove from heat.
Serve the soup thin and enjoy.

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.

Mango + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard seeds: Release a sharp, nutty aroma when fried in oil, flavouring the soup.
Mango pieces: Provide the main fruity flavour and body as they soften in the broth.
Mustard paste: Adds pungent sharpness that lightly thickens and seasons the soup.

“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.