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Good Vegetable Mullagatawny

A stew of butter, onions, marrow, cucumbers, apples, and curry, simmered and strained into a thick soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Good Vegetable Mullagatawny

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large stewpan or thick iron saucepan, melt the butter until just about to brown.

  2. Add the sliced onions, vegetable marrow, cucumbers, and acid apples. Stir well.

  3. Cook over gentle heat, shaking the pan often, until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Stir in the curry powder and salt, and let the vegetables stew for 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. Gradually add enough boiling water to just cover the vegetables.

Strain and finish

  1. When the mixture is reduced to almost a pulp, press it through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon.

  2. Heat the strained mixture in a clean stewpan, adding enough liquid to make 2 quarts.

  3. Adjust seasoning with salt, cayenne, or acid as needed, and serve hot.

  4. If butter appears on the surface, skim it off or stir in a small amount of arrow-root mixed with cold broth or water.

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 + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

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

  4. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and flavour as it melts and gently browns with the onions.
Onions
Soften and break down, giving the soup body and a sweet, savoury base.
Vegetable marrow
Breaks down into a pulp that thickens the soup and gives it smooth body.
Cucumbers
Soften during stewing, adding moisture and a mild, fresh flavour to the pulp.
Acid apples
Add tartness that balances the curry and sweetness from the vegetables.
Curry powder
Provides the spiced aroma and warm flavour that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Stewing the vegetables until they reach a pulp. Vegetables must be cooked until fully soft so they break down and strain smoothly; undercooked pieces stay grainy and the sieved soup will be thin and lumpy.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, cucumber, 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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