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Vermicelli Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, mutton, or fowl, onions, celery, and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil veal, mutton, or fowl with salt, sliced onions, sweet herbs, and small pieces of celery to make a rich soup.

  2. Cook until the meat falls apart.

  3. Strain the soup if necessary.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the vermicelli and boil for 10 minutes.

  2. Add a little pearl barley for improvement.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal, mutton, or fowl
Breaks down during long simmering to give the soup body and a rich meaty flavour.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that softens in the hot broth, adding starch and bulk to the soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury depth into the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Add the vermicelli and boil for 10 minutes. Vermicelli is fine and cooks quickly, so it can turn soft and mushy if boiled too long. Timing it near the end keeps its texture intact in the hot broth.

Swap the celery

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion. 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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