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Vermicelli Soup

A hearty soup made with veal or mutton, ham, onions, celery, sweet herbs, and vermicelli.

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

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 ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large stew-pan, combine the veal or mutton pieces, broken bones, sliced ham, butter, sliced onions, sweet herbs, and chopped celery.

  2. Cover the pan tightly and cook over low heat for 1 hour to extract the essence from the meat.

  3. Skim the mixture, then add 4 quarts of boiling water and let it boil gently until the meat is reduced to rags.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the soup, return it to the heat, and add the scalded vermicelli.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne pepper, and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Place a large slice of bread in the bottom of a tureen 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.

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. 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 or mutton
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth as it simmers.
Butter
Carries flavor from the aromatics and adds richness to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they cook down into the broth.
Vermicelli
Adds body and starch to the soup, thickening it slightly as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, vegetal flavor to the stock.
Bread
Soaks up soup at the base of the tureen, giving the dish a softer texture.

The step that matters

Simmer the stock gently until the meat falls apart. Boiling hard can cloud the broth and toughen the meat, while slow simmering extracts gelatin and flavor gradually, giving a clear, well-flavored soup.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, ham, butter, onion, 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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