Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Macaroni Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the macaroni
Boil macaroni in clear water until tender.
Drain and cut into 1-inch pieces.
Finish in the soup
Boil macaroni in the soup for 5 minutes.
Serve hot.
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.
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Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Small pipe macaroni
- Provides the starchy pasta body that gives the soup its substance and bite.
- Rich beef or other soup
- Supplies the liquid and savory flavor that the macaroni absorbs as it cooks.
The step that matters
Boil macaroni in the soup for 5 minutes. Pasta keeps softening and releasing starch in hot liquid, so leaving it too long makes it mushy and cloudy the soup. Timing it briefly keeps the pieces tender but intact.
“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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