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Mulligatawny Soup

A spiced chicken and veal soup with vegetables, rice, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large kettle, combine the chicken, some onion, carrot, celery, and veal with cold water.

  2. Add the cloves and parsley.

  3. Boil until the chicken is nearly done, about 1 hour.

  4. Remove the chicken pieces. Trim them neatly and set aside to serve in the soup.

  5. Let the veal simmer for an additional 3 hours.

Make the soup

  1. In a pan, fry the remaining onion, carrot, and celery in butter until they begin to brown.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes until browned.

  3. Add the curry powder, veal broth, and chicken pieces. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Half an hour before serving, strain and skim the soup.

  5. Return it to the heat with the chicken, apple, and rice. Heat until hot.

  6. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,569 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Clove + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Chicken + vealtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the broth its body and flavor, and is served in the soup as well.
Butter
Carries the onion, carrot, and celery to a browned, sweet flavor.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly as it cooks with the butter and vegetables.
Curry powder
Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the soup.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and a soft texture to the finished soup.
Apple
Adds a mild sweetness that balances the curry spices.

The step that matters

Frying the flour into the butter and vegetables. Cooking flour in fat until browned removes its raw taste and thickens the soup evenly. Stopping too early leaves a pasty, floury flavor, while too long can scorch it and make the soup bitter.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parsley, veal, pepper, butter, flour, rice):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Celerybetter flavor fit
  3. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parsley, veal, pepper, butter, flour, rice. 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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