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Vermicelli Soup

A soup made with vermicelli, rabbit, veal, vegetables, and spices, served with boiled rice and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Put the clear soup in a bright saucepan and bring it to a boil.

  2. Crush the vermicelli.

  3. Add the crushed vermicelli to boiling salted water and cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Drain the vermicelli.

  5. Add the drained vermicelli and tomato purée to the boiling soup.

  6. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

Cook the veal and rabbit

  1. Add the veal and water to a separate saucepan and bring the veal mixture to a boil, skimming carefully.

  2. Wash the rabbit.

  3. Soak the rabbit in saltwater for 30 minutes.

  4. Pour boiling water over the rabbit for a few minutes.

  5. Once the soup boils, add the rabbit.

  6. Add the vegetables, apple, mint, sugar, flour, and curry powder to taste.

  7. Let the soup boil for 1.5 hours.

  8. Remove the rabbit and set aside the best pieces of meat.

  9. Continue boiling the soup for 2 hours longer.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine sieve.

  2. Return the soup to the saucepan.

  3. Add the rabbit pieces, lemon juice, and salt.

  4. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  5. Add the cream.

  6. Serve with boiled rice and sliced lemon.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,065 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,433 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

Vermicelli
Thickens the soup and gives it a soft, noodle-like body.
Tomato purée
Adds acidity, colour and body to the soup.
Rabbit
Provides the main meat flavour and body of the soup.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin and rich meaty flavour to the stock.
Flour
Helps thicken the soup as it cooks.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture at the end.

The step that matters

Skimming the veal mixture while it comes to a boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would otherwise cloud the stock and leave it greasy, so the soup stays clear and clean-tasting.

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, rice, lemon, rabbit, veal, onion):

  1. Limebetter flavor fit
  2. Mangobetter flavor fit
  3. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, rice, lemon, rabbit, veal, onion. 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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