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Vermicelli Soup

A veal and lamb broth with vermicelli or macaroni, seasoned with salt, sweet herbs, onion, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Veal and lamb work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Heat the veal and lamb gradually in a pot until very tender.

  2. Season with salt, sweet herbs, onion (if using), and Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain and return the liquid to the pot.

Add the pasta and serve

  1. In the meantime, boil the vermicelli or macaroni in clear water for 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the pasta and add it to the soup, then bring to a boil and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Veal + lambtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  4. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Lamb + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together925 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

Veal
Breaks down during slow cooking, giving the broth body and a rich meaty flavor.
Lamb
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth while becoming tender, adding depth and richness.
Vermicelli or macaroni
Adds starchy bulk and a soft, chewy texture that makes the soup more filling.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that rounds out the flavor of the broth.

The step that matters

Heat the veal and lamb gradually. Gentle, gradual heat lets the meat's connective tissue slowly break down into gelatin, making it tender and giving the broth body. Rushing with high heat toughens the meat and leaves a thinner broth.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, lamb, sauce):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, lamb, sauce. 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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