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Macaroni Soup

A simple soup of macaroni, butter, onion, broth, and grated Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. In a saucepan, combine macaroni, butter, and onion.

  2. Boil until the macaroni is tender, then drain.

Simmer and serve

  1. Pour broth over the macaroni and simmer for 10 minutes, watching to prevent breaking.

  2. Add grated Parmesan cheese and 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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,717 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the body of the soup and absorbs broth, giving it a starchy, substantial texture.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the soup a richer mouthfeel.
Onion
Softens as it cooks and contributes savory, aromatic sweetness to the broth.
Broth
Provides the main liquid and the base savory flavor of the soup.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory depth and a sharp, nutty flavor at the end.

The step that matters

Simmering the macaroni in the broth. Pasta keeps softening and absorbing liquid while it sits in hot broth, so extended simmering makes it mushy and prone to breaking apart. Checking it often and stopping once it is just tender keeps its shape.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, parmesan cheese):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, parmesan cheese. 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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