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Mulligatawny Soup

A curry-flavored soup with chicken, vegetables, apple, and coconut milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,173 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

  1. In a large pot, sauté the onion, carrots, and celery until soft.

  2. Add the apple and curry powder, cooking for another minute.

  3. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

  4. Stir in the cooked chicken and coconut milk, simmer for 10 minutes.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with fresh cilantro before serving.

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Onion
Softens and sweetens as it sautés, forming the flavour base of the soup.
Curry powder
Blooms in the hot pot to release aroma and give the soup its spiced character.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavour and body.
Coconut milk
Adds fat and creaminess, mellowing the spices and softening the broth's sharpness.
Cooked chicken
Provides protein and substance, becoming tender as it simmers in the broth.
Apple
Adds gentle sweetness and acidity that balances the curry spices.

The step that matters

Cooking the curry powder. Curry powder needs a minute in hot fat before liquid is added. Blooming it this way releases fat-soluble aroma compounds, while adding it to broth without this step leaves the spice tasting raw and dusty.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

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

  1. Limebetter flavor fit
  2. Mangobetter flavor fit
  3. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, celery, 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.

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