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Macroni and Parmesan Cheese Soup

A creamy soup of macaroni, veal broth, Parmesan cheese, mace, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Macroni and Parmesan Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the macaroni in 1 quart of veal broth until tender.

  2. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and the pounded mace.

  3. Stir in 5 pints of veal broth and boil for 5 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine cloth.

  5. Boil again for 10 minutes and skim the surface.

  6. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix in the egg yolks.

  2. Mix in the cream before serving.

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. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parmesan cheese + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Riband macaroni
Provides the starchy body that gives the soup its substance as it cooks until tender.
Veal broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty depth and body as it melts into the broth.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and thicken it slightly with their fat and proteins when stirred in.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat by coagulating their proteins. If the soup is too hot when they go in, they can scramble into small curds, so add them off the boil and stir steadily.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg, cream. 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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