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Mullagatawny Soup

A veal soup with peppercorns, allspice, curry, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,302 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mullagatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine veal trimmings, black peppercorns, allspice, and water in a stewpan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim off any foam.

  3. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  4. Strain the broth.

Brown and simmer

  1. Fry the veal pieces and chopped onions in butter until browned.

  2. Add the strained broth to the veal and onions.

  3. Stir in curry powder, flour, and salt.

  4. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  5. Serve hot, garnished as desired.

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. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + allspicetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together509 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the meat and richness that give the soup its body and flavor.
Onions
Soften and brown during frying, adding sweetness and savory depth to the soup.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the soup's character.
Flour
Thickens the broth slightly as it simmers with the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Browning the veal and onions. Frying until well browned creates Maillard flavors that deepen the broth; pale frying yields a flatter, less savory soup.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, 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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