Name: Mulligatawny Soup
Ingredients: 1 onion, chopped; 2 carrots, diced; 1 apple, peeled and diced; 1 tablespoon curry powder; 4 cups chicken broth; 1 cup cooked chicken, shredded; 1 cup coconut milk; Salt and pepper to taste; Fresh cilantro for garnish

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,555 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

In a large pot, sauté the onion, carrots, and apple until soft.
Add the curry powder and cook for 1 minute.
Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Stir in the cooked chicken and coconut milk.
Season with salt and pepper, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Serve hot, garnished with fresh cilantro.

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.

Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,648 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Carrot + coconuttop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together392 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Onion: Softens into the base and adds savory sweetness as it cooks down.
Curry powder: Blooms in the hot pot to release aroma and give the soup its spiced flavor.
Coconut milk: Adds fat and body, making the broth richer and smoother.
Cooked chicken: Provides protein and substance, adding texture to the soup.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, chicken, coconut, milk, pepper):

Mangobetter flavor fit
Limebetter flavor fit
Avocadobetter flavor fit
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, chicken, coconut, milk, pepper. 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.