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Macaroni Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, beef, ham, vegetables, herbs, and macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the meat.

  2. Crack the bones.

  3. Slice the vegetables.

  4. Mix all the ingredients together.

Make the stock

  1. Melt the butter.

  2. Add the meat, vegetables, and herbs.

  3. Cover with a tight lid.

  4. Warm very slowly.

  5. Pour off the gravy.

  6. Increase the heat until the meat begins to brown.

  7. Return the gravy to the pot.

  8. Cover with 6 quarts of cold water.

  9. Boil until reduced to 4 quarts, about 4 hours.

  10. Strain the soup.

  11. Press out all the nourishment and rub the vegetables through a sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the macaroni in hot water for a few minutes.

  2. Cool the macaroni.

  3. Cut the macaroni into short bits.

  4. Add the macaroni to the soup.

  5. Season the soup.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Skim well.

  8. Cook gently for 10 minutes.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and flavour into the stock, giving body to the soup.
Lean beef
Adds meaty flavour to the stock as it browns and simmers.
Lean ham
Contributes savoury, salty depth to the stock.
Macaroni
Adds starchy body and bulk to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Warm very slowly. Gentle heat at the start draws out juices and flavour from the meat and bones gradually. Rushing this step can seize the proteins and leave the stock less clear and less rich.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, ham, onion, carrot, turnip, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, ham, onion, carrot, turnip, butter. 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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