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Noodle Soup

A simple broth made from a soup bone, water, salt, ginger, nutmeg, onion, tomatoes, and noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the soup bone in a pot and cover it with cold water.

  2. Season with salt, ginger, nutmeg, and add the whole onion and tomatoes if desired.

  3. Bring to a boil and skim the surface well.

  4. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 3 to 4 hours, adding hot water as needed.

  5. Strain the broth through a fine sieve and return it to the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the noodles and boil for 5 minutes until cooked.

  2. Serve with fine chopped parsley if desired.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bone
Releases collagen and flavor into the water during long simmering, giving the broth body.
Noodles
Absorb broth and provide the soft, chewy starch that makes the soup filling.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after boiling. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that rise as the broth first heats. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, nutmeg, onion, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, nutmeg, onion, parsley. 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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