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Mulligatawny Soup

A spiced chicken soup with curry, vegetables, and flour, served with boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,172 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. In a pot, melt the butter or beef dripping over medium heat.

  2. Add the curry powder, onions, mace, carrots, cloves, celery, pepper berries, and apple. Cook until browned.

  3. Stir in the chicken. Cook until browned.

  4. Add the flour and seasonings. Gradually pour in the stock and tomatoes.

  5. Simmer for 1 hour.

Strain and serve

  1. Press the mixture through a strainer. Reserve the chicken.

  2. Return the chicken to the strained soup. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Serve with boiled rice.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mace + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Celery + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter or beef dripping
Provides fat for browning the vegetables and adds rich flavour.
Onions
Build the aromatic base and, as they brown, add sweetness and depth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the soup as they soften during simmering.
Flour
Thickens the stock so the soup has a fuller texture.
White stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the other flavours.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, balancing the richness of the fat and spices.

The step that matters

Gradually pour in the stock and tomatoes. Adding liquid slowly while stirring lets the flour disperse evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, well-thickened soup.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, mace, carrot, clove, celery, pepper):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Orangeabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Limeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, mace, carrot, clove, celery, pepper. 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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