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Vegetable Mullagatawny

A vegetable stew with onions, marrow, cucumbers, apples, and curry powder simmered in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Mullagatawny

two quarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a large stewpan or thick iron saucepan, melt the butter until it's 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. Sprinkle the curry powder and salt over the vegetables and mix well.

  5. Continue to stew for 20 to 30 minutes.

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

Strain and finish

  1. When the mixture is reduced to almost 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 two quarts.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Cucumber + appletop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

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

  5. Onion + appletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,206 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
Fat that carries the curry flavour and gives a rich, lightly browned base.
Onions
Sweet, savoury base that softens and thickens as it stews down.
Vegetable marrow
Bulk and mild body, breaking down to a smooth pulp when pressed.
Cucumbers
Adds moisture and a fresh, mild vegetal flavour that softens when stewed.
Apples
Acidity and natural sweetness that balance the curry powder.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice aroma that defines the soup.

The step that matters

Stewing down to a pulp. Cooking gently and stirring often keeps the vegetables from scorching on the bottom of the pan. They must soften fully, because only thoroughly cooked vegetables press through a sieve into a smooth soup.

Swap the apple

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

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

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