Name: Vermicelli Soup
Ingredients: Clear stock from mutton, beef, or veal; 1 small quantity of thin vermicelli; 1 carrot, finely chopped; ½ head of celery, finely chopped; 6 fine leeks, finely chopped; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,173 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Clear stock from mutton, beef, or veal
1 small quantity of thin vermicelli
1 carrot, finely chopped
½ head of celery, finely chopped
6 fine leeks, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare the vermicelli

Pour boiling water over the vermicelli.
Drain and cut the vermicelli into short lengths.

Make the soup

Add the vermicelli to the clear stock.
In a separate pot, boil the carrot, celery, and leeks until tender.
Add the boiled vegetables to the stock and season well.
If desired, thicken the soup with a spoonful of brown sauce.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,310 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,093 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vermicelli: Provides the starchy noodles that give the soup its body and bite.
Carrot: Adds sweetness and colour to the soup.
Celery: Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the soup.
Leeks: Add a mild onion-like sweetness and soft texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, celery, pepper):

Turnipbetter flavor fit
Parsnipabout as good a flavor fit
Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, celery, pepper. 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.