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Vermicelli Soup

A broth of lamb, veal, and ham with vermicelli, seasoned with salt, pepper, herbs, onion, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine lamb, veal, ham, and enough water to cover the meat in a pot.

  2. Cook until the meat is tender.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, herbs, and the onion.

  4. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce.

Add the vermicelli and serve

  1. Boil the vermicelli in a separate pot until tender.

  2. Strain the vermicelli.

  3. Add the cooked vermicelli to the soup.

  4. Let the soup boil well. Serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lamb + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Lamb + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together160 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 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

Lamb knuckle
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Veal
Adds meaty flavor and helps give the broth a fuller, rounder body.
Ham
Contributes savory, salty depth that seasons the broth as it simmers.
Onion
Releases sweet aromatic compounds into the broth during cooking.
Vermicelli
Adds starchy noodles that soften in the broth and give the soup its texture.

The step that matters

Boil the vermicelli in a separate pot until tender.. Cooking the noodles apart from the broth keeps them from absorbing liquid and turning soft, and keeps their starch from clouding the soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, veal, ham, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, veal, ham, pepper, sauce. 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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