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Vekmicelli Soup

A hearty soup of veal or mutton, ham hock, onions, herbs, celery, butter, and vermicelli, served over bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Vekmicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Break the bones of the veal or mutton into small pieces and place them in a soup pot.

  2. Add the ham hock, onions, sweet herbs, celery, and butter.

  3. Cook for 1 hour over low heat.

  4. Skim the surface and add 1 gallon of boiling water.

  5. Keep boiling until the meat separates from the bones, then strain the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the broth to the pot and add the scalded vermicelli.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, and boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Place slices of bread in the bottom of a serving bowl and pour the soup over it.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Veal knuckle or mutton neck
Releases meat flavour and gelatin into the broth as it simmers from the bones.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the broth a richer mouthfeel.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that softens in the broth and gives the soup its body and bite.
Onions
Build sweetness and savoury depth as they cook slowly into the broth.

The step that matters

Keep boiling until the meat separates from the bones, then strain the broth. Simmering long enough lets collagen and flavour leave the bones, giving a fuller broth; straining removes bone fragments and loose solids so the soup stays clear.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, butter, pepper, bread):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, butter, pepper, bread. 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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