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Sotek's Mulligatawny Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, ham, vegetables, apples, curry, and flour, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sotek's Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cut the veal into pieces and place in a stewpan with butter, ham, carrot, turnip, onions, apples, and water.

  2. Set over high heat, stirring occasionally until the bottom is glazed.

  3. Add curry powder, curry paste, and flour; stir well.

  4. Fill the stewpan with water, add salt and sugar, and bring to a boil.

Simmer and finish

  1. Reduce heat and simmer for 2.5 hours, skimming off fat.

  2. Strain the soup into a tureen, trim veal pieces, and return to the stewpan to boil.

  3. Serve with plain boiled rice on the side.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,859 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,692 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives body and rich flavour to the broth as it simmers for hours.
Flour
Thickens the soup and helps the curry spices cling to the broth.
Apples
Add sweetness and acidity that balance the curry spices.
Onions
Build savoury depth and body as they soften and break down.
Curry powder
Provides the main spiced aroma and flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming off fat during the simmer. Fat that is not removed rises to the surface and makes the soup greasy and heavy on the palate. Skimming regularly while it simmers keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, ham, carrot, turnip, onion, flour):

  1. Lemonabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Applethe original
  3. Grapeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, ham, carrot, turnip, onion, flour. 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.

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