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Vegetable Mullagatawny

A curry‑flavored vegetable stew made with onions, marrow, cucumbers, apples, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 734 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Vegetable Mullagatawny

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. In a large stewpan, melt the butter until it is about to brown.

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

  3. Stir often and cook over gentle heat until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Mix in the curry powder and salt, then stew for another 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. Gradually pour in enough boiling water to just cover the vegetables.

Strain and finish

  1. When reduced to a pulp, press the mixture 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 arrowroot mixed with cold broth to absorb it.

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. Cucumber + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together734 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the curry flavour through the stew.
Onions
Provide sweetness and savoury body as they soften and break down.
Vegetable marrow
Forms the bulk of the stew and breaks down into a smooth pulp.
Cucumbers
Add moisture and a mild, fresh vegetable flavour to the pulp.
Apples
Add acidity and fruitiness that balance the curry powder.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma that defines the dish.

The step that matters

Pressing the vegetables through the sieve. Cooking until fully soft lets the vegetables break into a pulp that passes through a fine sieve, giving a smooth texture. Under-cooked pieces stay fibrous and will not press through, leaving a grainy stew.

Swap the apple

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

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

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