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Vermicelli Soup

A lamb and veal broth flavored with Worcestershire sauce, served with vermicelli noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the knuckle of lamb, veal, and enough water to cover them well.

  2. Cook until the meat is tender, then season with salt, pepper, herbs, and add the small onion and Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Boil the vermicelli in a separate pot until tender, then strain the soup from the meat.

  4. Add the cooked vermicelli to the soup, let it boil well, and 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 + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

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

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 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

Vermicelli
Forms the noodles that give the soup its body and bulk when cooked until tender.
Lamb knuckle
Releases collagen and flavor into the water as it simmers, enriching the broth.
Veal
Adds meat flavor and gelatin to the broth during long, gentle simmering.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Cook the meat until tender before adding the vermicelli. Meat simmered gently in water needs time for its connective tissue to break down into gelatin, which gives the broth body. Adding the noodles too early or boiling hard can leave the meat tough and the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, veal, 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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