Skip to main content
Main

Potage Villageois Au Macaroni

A French leek soup with macaroni, simmered in consommé and served with grated Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Villageois Au Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leeks

  1. Blanch the julienned leeks.

  2. Drain the leeks.

  3. Place the leeks in a pot with the butter.

  4. Sauté until golden.

  5. Add the consommé.

  6. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Blanch the macaroni.

  2. Cool the macaroni.

  3. Cut the macaroni into 1 cm pieces.

  4. Combine the macaroni with ½ liter of consommé.

  5. Boil for 10 minutes.

  6. Drain the macaroni.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the macaroni in a soup tureen.

  2. Skim the potage.

  3. Pour the potage over the macaroni.

  4. Stir.

  5. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

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. Leek + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together848 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Leek + parmesan cheesetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Soften and sweeten as they sauté in butter, forming the flavour base of the soup.
Butter
Carries the sauté, helping the leeks brown gently and adding richness.
Consommé
Forms the liquid base of the soup, providing savoury flavour and moisture.
Small macaroni
Adds body and bite to the soup as the pasta cooks in the broth.

The step that matters

Sauté until golden. Leeks cooked too briefly stay pale and raw-tasting, while overcooking burns the sugars and turns them bitter. Gentle, even browning builds the soup's sweet, deep flavour.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesLeek SoupLeek Soup31 recipes