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Yeemicelli Soup

A lamb and veal broth with vermicelli, seasoned with salt, pepper, herbs, onion, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Yeemicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, cover the knuckle of lamb and veal with water and cook until tender.

  2. Season the broth with salt, pepper, herbs, and the small onion.

  3. Add Worcestershire sauce and stir well.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the vermicelli in a separate pot until tender, then strain.

  2. Add the cooked vermicelli to the soup and let it boil for a few minutes 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.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lamb + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

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

  4. Lamb + oniontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,407 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of lamb
Gives the broth body and rich, meaty flavor as it cooks down.
Veal
Adds gelatin and depth to the broth, helping it feel fuller.
Vermicelli
Provides the starchy noodles that soften in the hot broth and thicken it slightly.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that rounds out the broth's flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the vermicelli separately. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid and turns soft and mushy when left in broth. Cooking it in its own pot and adding it at the end keeps the noodles tender and the soup clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, veal, pepper, sauce. 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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