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Macaroni or Vermicelli Soup

A beef stock soup with macaroni or vermicelli and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,668 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni or Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pasta

  1. Cook the macaroni or vermicelli in boiling salted water until tender, then drain the pasta.

  2. Rinse the pasta with cold water.

  3. Lay the pasta sticks close together.

  4. Cut the pasta into 1-inch pieces.

Make the stock

  1. In a pot combine beef, bones, water, salt, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, celery root, and mixed herbs.

  2. Boil the stock until it reduces to 2 quarts.

  3. Remove the fat and clarify the soup.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the cut pasta to a plain soup stock.

  2. Adjust seasoning if desired.

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. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

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

  2. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni or vermicelli
Forms the starchy body of the soup and soaks up some of the broth's flavor.
Beef
Releases savory flavor and meaty richness into the stock as it simmers.
Bones
Add gelatin and body to the stock, giving it a fuller mouthfeel.
Celery root
Contributes a earthy, celery-like aroma and background flavor to the stock.

The step that matters

Boil the stock until it reduces to 2 quarts. Boiling hard emulsifies fat and breaks up particles, clouding the stock. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and easier to clarify.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Pepperfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery. 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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