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Mullagatawny Soup

A veal soup with curry, onions, and a flour-based thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mullagatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cook the bacon with the knuckle of veal in a stew‑pan for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

  2. Add the breast of veal pieces, bones, and gristly parts to the knuckle while it simmers.

Fry and combine

  1. Fry the veal pieces and sliced onions in clarified butter or dripping in another stew‑pan.

  2. Strain the stock from the knuckle and add the fried meat and onions to it.

Season and simmer

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off any foam, then let it simmer for nearly 1 hour.

  2. Mix the curry powder, browned flour, salt, and Cayenne in a batter, then add to the soup.

  3. Continue simmering until the meat is tender.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal breast
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long simmering, adding body to the soup.
Sliced onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, building savoury depth in the soup.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup slightly and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.
Clarified butter or dripping
Fat for frying the meat and onions, adding richness and browning.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam after boiling. Foam rising at the boil carries coagulated proteins and impurities that would cloud the broth and taste bitter, so it should be removed for a clear, clean soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, flour, 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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