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Mullagatawny Soup

A veal and bacon soup flavored with curry powder and cayenne pepper.

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. Add bacon and knuckle of veal to a stew-pan and simmer for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

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

Fry and combine

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

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

  3. Skim the surface and let it simmer for nearly 1 hour.

Finish the soup

  1. Mix curry powder, browned flour, salt, and cayenne pepper in a batter.

  2. Add the batter to the soup.

  3. Simmer 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 knuckle
Releases flavour and body into the stock during the long simmer.
Lightly browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasty, nutty depth to the broth.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma and warm flavour that define the soup.
Sliced onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth as they soften and brown in the fat.
Breast of veal
Provides tender meat pieces that become soft during the final simmer.

The step that matters

Add the batter to the soup. Flour mixed with curry powder must be smoothly blended into the batter before it goes in, otherwise it clumps. Simmering after the addition lets the flour thicken the liquid and cook out its raw taste.

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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