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Maccaroni and Parmesan Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with macaroni, veal broth, Parmesan cheese, mace, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Maccaroni and Parmesan Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the macaroni in 1 quart of veal broth until tender.

  2. Add the grated Parmesan cheese, pounded mace, and 5 pints of veal broth.

  3. Boil together for 5 minutes, then strain through a fine cloth.

  4. Return to heat and boil for another 10 minutes.

  5. Skim the surface, season with salt and cayenne pepper.

Finish with egg and cream

  1. Mix the egg yolks with the cream, then stir into the soup.

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. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parmesan cheese + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and add richness when stirred in with cream.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and body to the broth.
Cream
Adds fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel to the soup.
Riband macaroni
Adds starch and bulk, giving the soup substance.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks and cream into the soup. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the soup is too hot when they are added. Stirring them in off the heat, or keeping the soup below a simmer, helps them thicken it smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg, cream. 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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