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Yekmicelli 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 ↓

Yekmicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cover the lamb and veal with water in a pot.

  2. Cook until well done.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, herbs, and the small onion.

  4. Add Worcestershire sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil ¼ pound of vermicelli until tender.

  2. Strain the soup from the meat.

  3. Add the boiled vermicelli.

  4. Let it boil well.

  5. Serve.

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

Vermicelli
Thin pasta that gives the soup its body and bite once cooked through.
Knuckle of lamb
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin and flavor into the water as it simmers.
Veal
Adds meaty richness and body to the broth as it cooks down.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, slightly tangy depth that rounds out the meat flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the meat until well done. Long, gentle simmering breaks down collagen in the lamb and veal into gelatin, which gives the broth body and flavor. Stopping early leaves a thin, less savory soup.

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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