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Yermicelli Soup

A lamb and veal broth with vermicelli, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings.

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 ↓

Yermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the lamb knuckle and veal in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Cook until well done.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, herbs, add the onion and Worcestershire sauce.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the vermicelli in a separate pot until tender.

  2. Strain the soup from the meat.

  3. Add the cooked vermicelli and let it boil well 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

Vermicelli
Thin pasta that gives the soup body and a soft, noodle-like bite.
Lamb knuckle
Bone and meat that release flavour and gelatin into the broth as they cook.
Veal
Adds meaty depth and body to the broth as it simmers.
Onion
Adds savoury, aromatic sweetness to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking the meat until well done. The lamb and veal must cook long enough for the connective tissue to soften and flavour to leave the meat. Undercooked meat yields a thin, bland broth and tough pieces. The record gives no time, so judge by tenderness.

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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