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Mullagatawny Soup

A curry soup with vegetables, apple, coconut, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mullagatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop all the vegetables finely.

  2. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the chopped vegetables, herbs, curry powder, and flour, then fry for 10-15 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat.

Make the soup

  1. Gradually stir in the stock.

  2. Bring to a boil while stirring.

  3. Add the chopped apple, tomato, sugar, and coconut.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Simmer gently for 2 hours, stirring frequently.

Finish and serve

  1. Pass the soup through a fine sieve.

  2. Add lemon juice and reheat.

  3. Serve with boiled rice.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter and vegetables.
Butter
Carries the spices and vegetables and adds richness.
Curry powder
Gives the soup its warm, spiced aroma and flavour.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the soup simmers in.
Coconut
Adds creaminess and a mild, slightly sweet flavour.
Apple
Adds gentle sweetness and body as it softens during simmering.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the stock. Adding the stock slowly, off the heat, lets the flour and butter blend smoothly. Adding it all at once can clump the flour, leaving the soup lumpy and unevenly thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, carrot, sugar, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, carrot, sugar, parsley, thyme, pepper. 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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