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Macaroni Soup

A soup made with macaroni, onion, cloves, butter, and clear soup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add the macaroni, butter, onion, and cloves to a pot of boiling water.

  2. Cook until the macaroni is tender, then drain it well.

  3. Pour the clear soup gravy over the macaroni and let it simmer for 10 minutes, being careful not to overcook.

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. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Clove + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 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

Macaroni
Forms the body of the soup and absorbs liquid, giving it substance.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the soup.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness as it cooks in the water.
Clear soup gravy
Provides the main liquid and savory flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the macaroni in the gravy. Pasta keeps softening as it sits in hot liquid, so it can turn mushy if simmered too long. Stopping on time keeps its texture pleasant.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter. 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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