Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 122,858 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Mulligatawny Soup, Thick
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
In a pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour until browned.
Add the curry powder and then the chicken stock, stirring well.
Add the chopped chicken and season with salt and pepper.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve
Place the forcemeat balls in a soup tureen and pour the soup over them.
Serve with boiled rice on the side.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together122,858 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,869 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together19,957 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Butter + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together85,512 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + peppertop 13% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together49,477 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Browned in butter, it thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
- Curry powder
- Provides the spiced aroma that defines the soup.
- Chicken stock
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its flavour.
- Butter
- Carries the flour and curry flavour, adding richness to the soup.
The step that matters
Browning the flour in butter. Cooking the flour until browned toasts it and builds flavour. If it is pulled too early it tastes raw, and if it burns it turns bitter before the stock is added.
“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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