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Rivel Soup

A beef and vegetable soup with small pieces of flour and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rivel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the beef, cabbage, onion, tomatoes, and carrot in a large pot for three hours.

  2. Strain the broth and return it to the pot.

Make the rivels and finish

  1. Mix the flour and egg in a bowl until combined.

  2. Cut the mixture with a knife until it forms small pieces (rivels).

  3. Add the rivels to the broth and boil for five minutes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Egg
Binds the flour into a stiff dough that can be cut into small rivels.
Flour
Forms the starch-based dough pieces that hold their shape and thicken the broth slightly.
Beef
Releases flavor and savory body into the broth during long simmering.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Cut the mixture into small pieces. The dough must be cut into evenly small, dry-surfaced rivels; pieces that are too large cook unevenly, and overworked dough becomes tough and chewy rather than tender.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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