Mulligatawny

2021-10-20T03:09:49Z

2600:1700:10C5:8080:F9FE:C28F:C995:5F60: /* In popular culture */Fixed typo. Capitalized Seinfeld

{{short description|Curry soup based on an Indian recipe of the British Raj times}}
{{distinguish|Mulligan stew (food)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox food
| name = Mulligatawny
| image = Mulligatawny-Soup Mumbai.jpg
| image_size =
| image_alt = A bowl of soup in a metal bowl
| caption = Mulligatawny as served in [[Mumbai]]
| type = [[Soup]]
| country = India
| national_cuisine =
| served = Hot, often with rice
| main_ingredient =
| minor_ingredient =
| variations =
| similar_dish = [[Rasam (dish)|Rasam]]
| other =
}}
'''Mulligatawny''' [{{IPA|ˈmɐlɨɡəˈtɑːni}}] {{nowrap|({{Audio|GT Mulligatawny.ogg|listen}})}} is a [[soup]] which originated from [[South Indian cuisine]]. The name originates from the [[Tamil language|Tamil]] words {{lang|ta-Latn|miḷagāy}} ({{lang-ta|மிளகாய்|link=no}} 'chilli') or {{lang|ta-Latn|miḷagu}} ({{lang|ta|மிளகு}} 'pepper'), and {{lang|ta-Latn|taṇṇi}} ({{lang|ta|தண்ணி}}, 'water').<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Clarkson |first=Janet |title=Soup : a global history |date=2010 |publisher=Reaktion |isbn=978-1-86189-774-9 |location=London |pages=118 |oclc=642290114 }}</ref> It is related to the dish {{lang|ta-Latn|[[rasam (dish)|rasam]]}}.

==History==

Mulligatawny was popular in India by the end of the 18th century,<ref name=":0" /> and by the 1800s it began to appear in cookbooks of the day, with each cook (or cookbook) featuring its own recipe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Food Culture in Colonial Asia: A Taste of Empire|last=Leong-Salobir|first=Cecilia|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2011|isbn=978-0-415-60632-5|location=Abingdon, Oxon, UK|page=17}}</ref> Recipes for mulligatawny varied greatly at that time and over the years (e.g., [[Maria Rundell]]'s ''A New System of Domestic Cookery'' contained three versions), and later versions of the soup included British modifications that included meat<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/b21528378#page/74/mode/1up|page=74 |title=The wife's help to Indian cookery : being a practical manual for housekeepers|author= Dawe, W.H.|year=1888| publisher=Elliot Stock| place= London}}</ref> (though the local Madras recipe on which it was based did not).<ref name=wyvern /> Early references to it in English go back to 1784.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/hobsonjobson029985mbp#page/n648/mode/1up/| page=595| title=Hobson Jobson|author=Yule, Henry| edition=2| place=London| publisher=John Murray|year=1902}}</ref> In 1827, William Kitchiner wrote that it had become fashionable in Britain:

{{Quote|text=''Mullaga-Tawny'' signifies pepper water. The progress of inexperienced peripatetic Palaticians has lately been arrested by this outlandish word being pasted on the windows of our Coffee-Houses; it has, we believe, answered the "''Restaurateurs' ''" purpose, and often excited {{Smallcaps|John Bull}}, to walk in and taste—the more familiar name of ''Curry Soup''—would, perhaps, not have had sufficient of the charms of novelty to seduce him from his much-loved {{Smallcaps|[[Mock turtle soup|Mock-Turtle]]}}.

It is a fashionable Soup and a great favourite with our East Indian friends, and we give the best receipt we could procure for it.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kitchiner, William |year=1827|title=The Cook's Oracle; Containing Recipes for Plain Cookery on the Most Economical Plan for Private Families| place= Edinburgh| publisher= Cadell and Co. |url=https://archive.org/stream/b22016430#page/n287/mode/1up/|pages=262–263}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Roy, Modhumita| year=2010| volume=45| issue=32| journal=Economic and Political Weekly|pages=66–75|title= Some Like It Hot: Class, Gender and Empire in the Making of Mulligatawny Soup}}</ref>}}
[[File:Mulligatawny-Rezept ATYR 22.08.1868 Seite 249 marked.jpg|thumb|Mulligatawny recipe from Charles Dickens's weekly magazine ''All The Year Round'', 22nd August 1868 (page 249).]]
By the mid 1800s, Wyvern, the pen-name of [[Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert]] (1840–1916), wrote in his popular "''Culinary Jottings''" that "really well-made ''mulligatunny'' is ... a thing of the past."<ref name=wyvern /> He also noted that this simple recipe prepared by poorer natives of Madras as made by "Mootoosamy" was made by pounding:

{{Quote|text=a dessert-spoonful of tamarind, six red chillies, six cloves of garlic, a tea-spoonful of mustard seed, a salt-spoonful of fenugreek seed, twelve black peppercorns, a tea-spoonful of salt, and six leaves of ''[[Curry tree|karay-pauk]]''. When worked to a paste, he adds a pint of water, and boils the mixture for a quarter of an hour. While this is going on, he cuts up two small onions, puts them into a [[wiktionary:chattee#English|chatty]], and fries them in dessert-spoonful of [[ghee]] till they begin to turn brown, when he strains the pepper-water into the chatty, and cooks the mixture for five minutes, after which it is ready. The pepper-water is, of course, eaten with a large quantity of boiled rice, and is a meal in itself. The English, taking their ideas from this simple composition, added other condiments, with chicken, mutton, &c., thickened the liquid with flour and butter, and by degrees succeeded in concocting a ''soupe grasse'' of a decidedly acceptable kind.<ref name=wyvern>{{cite book|title=Culinary Jottings. A treatise in thirty chapters on reformed cookery for Anglo-Indian rites, based upon modern English and continental principles with thirty menus.| author="Wyvern" [Kenney-Herbert, Arthur Robert 1840–1916]|edition=5| year=1885| publisher=Higginbotham and Co.|place= Madras|url= https://archive.org/stream/culinaryjottings00kenn#page/306/mode/2up/|pages=306–307}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| journal=Journal of Women's History |volume=15| issue=2 |year=2003|pages= 123–149| title=Feeding the Imperial Appetite Imperial Knowledge and Anglo-Indian Domesticity|author=Procida, Mary|doi=10.1353/jowh.2003.0054|s2cid=143009780}}</ref>}}

==In popular culture==

Bengali writer [[Buddhadeb Guha]]'s character [[Rijuda]] mentions it as his most hated soup.

In "[[The Soup Nazi]]" episode of [[Seinfeld]], [[Cosmo Kramer|Kramer]] asks [[Elaine Benes|Elaine]] to get him a bowl of mulligatawny soup.

It was featured in the [[Homestar Runner]] cartoon ''Experimental Film'' with music written by [[They Might Be Giants]]. <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Experimental_Film#Commentary_Transcript|title=Experimental Film - Homestar Runner Wiki}}</ref>

In Germany it is named in the English-language sketch ''[[Dinner for One]]'', which many people watch every New Years Eve. As a result "mulligatawny soup" (as it is called in the sketch) has achieved wide name recognition in Germany.

In ''[[Batman (comic book)|Batman Vol 1.]]'' #701, it is revealed that mulligatawny soup is [[Batman]]’s favorite food.

In [[George Orwell|George Orwell]]'s novel ''[[A Clergyman's Daughter]]'', it is referenced several times by a cockney youth in the expression "That's the mulligatawny!" with a generally positive connotation.

==See also==
*[[List of soups]]

==References==
{{commons category}}
{{reflist}}

[[Category:English soups]]
[[Category:Indian soups and stews]]
[[Category:Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Tamil cuisine]]
[[Category:Anglo-Indian cuisine]]
[[Category:Curry dishes]]

{{India-cuisine-stub}}

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Mulligatawny