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Macaroni, or Vermicelli Soup

A vegetable broth with macaroni or vermicelli, made from simmered bones and carrots, onions, turnips, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Macaroni, or Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the soup bones in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, and add the chopped vegetables.

  3. Simmer for 3 to 4 hours, then strain the broth through a colander.

  4. Return the broth to the saucepan and reheat.

Serve

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender, then place it in a soup tureen.

  2. Pour the hot soup over the macaroni just before serving.

  3. If using vermicelli, soak it briefly instead of boiling.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the broth as they simmer for hours.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and release flavor into the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the simmered broth.
Macaroni
Adds starchy body and substance when cooked until tender and served in the soup.

The step that matters

Pour the hot soup over the macaroni just before serving. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid as it sits, so it turns soft and mushy if the soup is poured on too early.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, clove, pepper, marjoram, parsley, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, clove, pepper, marjoram, parsley, thyme. 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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