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German Noodle Soup

A clear broth made from a soup bone, vegetables, spices, and noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

German Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the soup bone in a large pot with 1 gallon of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.

Add the vegetables and spices

  1. One hour before serving, add the chopped carrot, onion, celery, and parsley.

  2. Thirty minutes before serving, add whole peppercorns, allspice, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg to taste.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a colander.

  2. Cook the noodles in the strained soup and serve hot.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bone
Releases flavor and body into the water during the long simmer.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savory flavor to the broth.
Noodles
Absorb the broth and add starch and body to the soup.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam after the boil. Foam carries impurities and coagulated proteins from the bone. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, parsley, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, parsley, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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