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Vermicelli Soup

A hearty beef broth with vermicelli noodles, simmered with vegetables and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

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 ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef, bones, sliced vegetables, and herbs with the water.

  2. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 hours.

  3. Strain the broth and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Set aside 2 quarts of stock with the meat and bones, keeping it refrigerated.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil and skim the remaining stock, then add the vermicelli.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then serve in a tureen.

  3. Add the mushroom catsup just before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 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

Beef shin
Gives the broth its rich meaty flavor and body as it simmers for hours.
Bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the stock, giving it body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savory depth to the broth.
Vermicelli
Provides starchy strands that soften in the broth and add bulk to the soup.
Mushroom catsup
Adds a deep, savory umami aroma to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skim the stock before adding the vermicelli. Boiling releases fat and impurities that rise to the surface. Skimming removes them so the broth stays clear and clean-tasting rather than greasy or cloudy.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, tomato, pepper, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, tomato, pepper, mushroom. 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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