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Neapolitan Soup

A hearty soup made with stock, semolina, egg yolks, Parmesan, lemon, pepper, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Neapolitan Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Bring the stock to a boil.

  2. Stir in the semolina, pepper, and salt, then let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the Parmesan cheese and lemon juice.

  2. Add the egg mixture to the soup and stir gently over low heat until blended, being careful not to let it boil.

  3. If desired, add a little cream just 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Semolina + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  4. Semolina + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the stock as it simmers, giving the soup body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated, adding richness and silky texture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty depth and umami to the soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich egg and cheese flavors.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the soup. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the soup boils, the yolks can scramble into curds. Stir steadily over low heat until the mixture is smooth and blended.

“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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