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Vermicelli Soup

A creamy soup of vermicelli, milk, cream, eggs, and assorted vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Parsnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,097 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cook the sliced vegetable oysters, celery, onion, parsnip, and carrot in just enough water to cover them.

Make the soup

  1. In a double boiler, cook the vermicelli in the milk until tender.

  2. Strain the broth from the vegetables and add it to the cooked vermicelli.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and stir in the cream.

  4. Beat the eggs lightly and slowly pour the hot soup over them, stirring briskly to prevent curdling.

  5. Reheat if the soup is not thickened, then 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsniptop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the soup as they set gently in the hot liquid, giving body to the broth.
Vermicelli
Provides starchy body and substance as it softens in the milk.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and cooks the vermicelli.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smoother, fuller mouthfeel.
Vegetable oysters
Contribute their delicate flavor to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Adding the hot soup to the eggs. Pouring hot liquid into eggs too quickly, without constant stirring, can scramble them and cause curdling. Adding the hot soup slowly while whisking gradually warms the eggs so they thicken the soup smoothly.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, celery, parsnip, carrot, milk, cream, egg):

  1. Leekbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Turnipbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, celery, parsnip, carrot, milk, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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