Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,395 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Another Mullagatawny Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Boil the bones and trimmings in 3 quarts of water for 2 hours with whole pepper and allspice.
Skim the broth well.
Strain the broth.
Finish the soup
Add the fried veal and minced onions.
Boil for 30 minutes.
Mix 2 tablespoons of curry powder, 2 tablespoons of arrowroot, and 1 teaspoon of salt with cold water.
Stir this mixture into the soup and simmer gently until the veal is tender.
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.
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + arrowroottop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together45 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Onion + arrowroottop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together340 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal breast
- Provides meat and collagen that become tender and flavour the broth during simmering.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and body to the soup as they soften in the broth.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that define the soup.
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the soup into a silky body when stirred in and simmered.
The step that matters
Stirring the arrowroot slurry into the soup. Arrowroot must be mixed with cold water first so it disperses without clumping. Stirred into hot liquid directly, it forms lumps. Simmering gently then thickens the soup without breaking the starch.
Flavor stand-ins for the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, allspice, butter, onion):
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Leekbetter flavor fit
- Arrowrootthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, allspice, butter, onion. 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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