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Potage De Macaroni a LA Mecene

A French macaroni soup with consommé, ham, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Potage De Macaroni a LA Mecene

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Reduce the consommé by half in a pot.

  2. Blanch the macaroni in boiling water, then drain after a few minutes.

Cook and serve

  1. Simmer the macaroni with one-third of the reduced consommé, butter, white pepper, and Soubise sauce for 25 minutes.

  2. Layer the bottom of a soup tureen with macaroni, then add a layer of grated Parmesan, diced ham, and large croutons.

  3. Top with more Parmesan and serve the remaining consommé separately.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Ham + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together144 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they 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

Macaroni
Forms the body of the soup and absorbs the consommé, giving it a substantial texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the flavour of the consommé.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and melts into the hot macaroni for richness.
Reduced consommé
Provides the main savoury broth flavour, concentrated by reduction.

The step that matters

Simmering the macaroni with the consommé. The macaroni must cook long enough to become tender while absorbing liquid without turning mushy. Simmering gently keeps the pasta intact and lets it soak up flavour from the broth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, sauce, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, sauce, parmesan cheese. 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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