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Vermicelli Soup

A clear broth of veal and vegetables served with vermicelli noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,002 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, boil the shin of veal, onions, carrots, turnips, and salt in 4 quarts of water for 3 hours.

  2. Strain the broth to remove solids.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the vermicelli to the strained broth and let it boil for 30 minutes.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3,015 recipes

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

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned 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

Veal shin
Releases collagen and meaty flavor into the broth, giving it body and richness.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the simmering broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and color to the broth as they cook down.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy aroma to the broth during long simmering.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that cooks in the broth, adding starch and substance to the soup.

The step that matters

Boiling the vermicelli for 30 minutes. Vermicelli is very thin and keeps cooking in the hot broth, so it can turn soft and mushy if it boils too long. Checking it early helps keep its texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Beetrootbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip. 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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