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Maccaroni Soup

A simple soup of macaroni and clear gravy, finished with butter and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Maccaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Cut macaroni into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Boil macaroni in a small amount of water until tender, but not breaking. Add a small piece of butter while boiling.

Finish and serve

  1. Shortly before serving, add macaroni to the soup and bring to a boil.

  2. Serve with a plate or glass of grated cheese for guests to add to their soup.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Macaroni (in the method)
Provides the starchy body of the soup and absorbs some of the broth's flavor.
Clear gravy soup
Forms the liquid base that carries the dish's savory flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the pasta.
Parmesan or other rich cheese
Adds salty, savory depth when grated over the soup at the table.

The step that matters

Boil macaroni until tender but not breaking. Pasta keeps cooking in hot liquid, so pulling it at the right moment keeps it firm. Adding it to the soup shortly before serving prevents it from going soft and starchy in the broth.

“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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