Name: Clear Mulligatawny Soup
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon mustard or 1 tablespoon mustard seed; 4 tablespoons curry powder; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; juice of 1 lemon; cooked chicken, cut into small pieces; boiled rice

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Clear Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

1 teaspoon mustard or 1 tablespoon mustard seed
4 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
juice of 1 lemon
cooked chicken, cut into small pieces
boiled rice

Directions

In a stewpan, combine mustard, curry powder, and coarse sea salt with water.
Boil for 2 hours.
Whisk in the egg whites to clarify the soup.
Strain the soup through a clean cloth.
Add lemon juice before serving.
Serve with small pieces of cooked chicken in the soup and boiled rice on the side.

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.

Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Mustard + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together599 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,816 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Mustard + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).