Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Mullagatawny Soup, or Mullaghce Tawmnie Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Cut the veal into pieces about 2 inches by 1 inch.
Place the trimmings in a stewpan with black pepper, allspice, and water.
Bring the stew to a boil and skim the surface.
Let it boil for 1.5 hours.
Strain the broth.
Finish the soup
Fry the veal pieces and onions in butter until browned.
Add the broth to the veal and onions and skim the surface.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Mix curry powder, flour, and salt with enough cold water to make a batter.
Stir the batter into the soup and simmer until thickened.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together6,841 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 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
- Breast of veal
- Provides the meat and rich flavor that give the soup its body.
- Onions
- Browning in butter adds sweetness and savory depth to the soup.
- Flour
- Mixed into the batter, it thickens the soup as it simmers.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice blend that gives the soup its characteristic aroma and warmth.
- Butter
- Used for frying, it helps the veal and onions brown for added flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour batter into the soup. Flour mixed into cold water forms a smooth batter that disperses evenly; added directly to hot liquid it clumps. Simmering then lets the starch swell and thicken the soup.
Flavor stand-ins for the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, flour, butter):
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, flour, butter. 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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