Why it works: Beef and pepper 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
Boil the macaroni in clear water until tender.
Drain the macaroni and cut it into 1-inch pieces.
Finish the soup
Add the macaroni to the soup and boil for 15 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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Beef + peppertop 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
- Adds body and bulk, and soaks up some of the soup's broth as it cooks.
- Rich beef or other soup
- Forms the liquid base that carries the main savory flavor of the dish.
The step that matters
Add the macaroni to the soup and boil for 15 minutes. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid while it simmers, so it can turn soft and swollen. Boiling it in the soup for the stated time, rather than longer, keeps the texture pleasant and the broth from thickening too much.
“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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