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Good Vegetable Mullagatawny

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and arrowroot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Good Vegetable Mullagatawny

2 quarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

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

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

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

  4. Mix in the curry powder and salt, then 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 nearly 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 extremely hot.

  4. If butter appears on the surface, skim it off or stir in arrowroot mixed with a little cold broth or water to thicken.

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 + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Onion + arrowroottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and rich flavour as the vegetables begin to cook.
Vegetable marrow
Forms the bulk of the soup and breaks down into a smooth body.
Cucumbers
Contribute moisture and a mild, fresh vegetable base once stewed.
Acid apples
Add tartness that balances the curry powder and the sweetness of the onions.
Mild curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the soup.

The step that matters

Stewing the vegetables gently with the curry powder. Over high heat the onions and butter can scorch and turn bitter, and the curry powder can burn, spoiling the flavour. Gentle heat with frequent stirring softens the vegetables evenly and lets the spices bloom without catching on the pan.

Swap the arrowroot

The recipe marks arrowroot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, cucumber, apple, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

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