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Mulligatawny Soup

A hearty soup made with calf head, mutton, vegetables, curry powder, and clarified fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,046 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open a 2 lb tin of Australian mutton.

  2. Remove all the fat from the top of the meat.

  3. Put the mutton in a basin with 2 quarts of warm water.

  4. Peel and slice the apples.

  5. Place the sliced apples in a saucepan with 2 oz of clarified fat.

  6. Peel and chop the turnip and onions.

  7. Add the chopped turnip and onions to the saucepan.

  8. Heat the saucepan.

  9. Stir the vegetables occasionally with a wooden spoon.

  10. Wash the leeks, trim the green tops, and chop the leeks.

  11. Add the chopped leeks to the saucepan.

  12. Wash the carrots, scrape them, and chop them.

  13. Add the chopped carrots to the saucepan.

  14. Stir the vegetables and let them fry for 10 minutes.

  15. Add a bouquet garni.

Make the soup base

  1. Take ½ pint of the soaking liquid and pour it into the saucepan.

  2. Boil the liquid down to ¼ pint.

  3. Stir the vegetables occasionally.

  4. In a bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 tablespoon of curry powder with ½ cup of the liquor to form a smooth paste.

  5. Stir the paste into the saucepan with the vegetables.

  6. Add the meat and the remaining liquor to the saucepan.

  7. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  8. Add a little salt and sugar.

  9. Move the saucepan to the side of the heat.

  10. Let it simmer for 2.5 hours.

  11. Watch the soup and skim it as needed.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup into a basin.

  2. Return the strained soup to the saucepan.

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. Leek + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Leek + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 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

Flour
Thickens the soup and helps form a smooth base with the curry powder.
Curry powder
Adds the spiced aroma and flavour that define the soup.
Mutton
Provides rich meat flavour and body as it simmers into the broth.
Clarified fat
Carries flavour from the vegetables and helps them fry without sticking.
Leeks
Add mild onion-like sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
Apples
Add gentle sweetness and acidity that balance the curry spices.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and curry powder into the liquor. Mixing the flour and curry powder into a smooth paste before adding it prevents lumps, so the starch disperses evenly and the soup thickens smoothly instead of clumping.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, leek, carrot, turnip, onion, flour, sugar):

  1. Pumpkinabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Lemonabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Applethe original
  4. Orangeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, leek, carrot, turnip, onion, flour, sugar. 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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