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Macaroni Soup, a LA Medicis

A macaroni soup made with crayfish tails, braised fowl, Parmesan cheese, and reduced consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup, a LA Medicis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the consommé and reduce it by half.

  2. Blanch the macaroni and strain it.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Simmer the macaroni in half of the consommé with butter and pepper for 25 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a tureen, layer macaroni, Parmesan, crayfish, and chopped fowl alternately.

  2. Finish with a layer of Parmesan and moisten with macaroni liquor and reduced consommé.

  3. Serve the remainder of the consommé in a silver casserole.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + crayfishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  4. Crayfish + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Naples macaroni
Forms the body of the soup and absorbs the consommé and butter as it simmers.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and melts into the layers to give richness.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for a rounder mouthfeel and smoother flavor in the simmered macaroni.
Consommé
Provides the clear, savory broth that cooks the macaroni and moistens the layers.
Crayfish tails
Contribute delicate sweet, shellfish flavor and firm texture between the macaroni layers.
Braised fowl flesh
Adds tender, savory meat that gives the soup substance and body.

The step that matters

Simmering the macaroni in the consommé. Simmering too hard or too long can break the pasta apart and cloud the broth. Gentle heat lets the macaroni cook through evenly while absorbing flavor from the consommé.

“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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