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Vermicelli Soup, White

A light soup of white stock with vegetables, parsley, and vermicelli, finished with cream or egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup, White

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine white stock, salt, cayenne, mace, turnip, carrot, onion, and parsley in a pot, then simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Soak the crumb of the French roll in the stock until soft, then mash it smooth.

  3. Stir the mashed roll into the soup.

  4. Boil for 15 minutes.

Cook the vermicelli

  1. Blanch the vermicelli in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain the vermicelli.

  3. Boil in fresh water until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the vermicelli in a tureen.

  2. Pour the boiling soup over it.

  3. Serve hot.

  4. If cream is unavailable, mix the egg yolk with milk.

  5. Stir the mixture into the soup.

  6. Add the vermicelli 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

French roll
Soaked and mashed crumb thickens the soup and gives it body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the soup.
Egg yolk
Substitute for cream that enriches and thickens the soup when stirred in.
Vermicelli
Adds tender noodle pieces that give the soup substance and bite.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and body to the stock.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk and milk into the soup. Egg yolk proteins set at around 65 to 70 °C, so adding it to very hot soup can scramble it. Mix it with milk first and stir it in gradually while the soup is hot but not boiling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, onion, parsley, cream):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, onion, parsley, 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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