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Noodle Soup

A hearty beef broth with vegetables and noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef, water, onion, celery root, carrots, potato, parsley, tomatoes, and giblets if using.

  2. Cover tightly and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer slowly for several hours, ideally starting early in the morning.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the soup, add salt, and remove any fat.

  2. Add the noodles and boil for about 5 minutes 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef neck
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers slowly.
Potato
Releases starch into the broth, adding a little body and thickness.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, savoury note to the broth.
Noodles
Soak up broth and add starchy bulk to the finished bowl.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, skimming the surface. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and emulsifies fat into it. A slow simmer keeps it clear, and skimming removes the scum that rises as it cooks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, carrot, potato, parsley, tomato):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Turnipfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, carrot, potato, parsley, tomato. 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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