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Palermo Soup

A light soup made with white stock, vermicelli, tomato pulp, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Palermo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cook the white stock, vermicelli, and tomato pulp in a pot for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat a tureen and mix the egg yolks and cream.

  2. Add the soup to the mixture just below boiling point.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + tomatotop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries all the other flavours.
Vermicelli
Adds body and starch, softening as it cooks in the stock.
Tomato pulp
Adds acidity, colour and a tomato flavour to the soup.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup into a smooth, rich texture as they gently set.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Add the soup to the mixture just below boiling point.. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but curdle if they get too hot. Adding the hot soup slowly and keeping it just below boiling keeps the liaison smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

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