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Vermicelli Soup

A clear soup 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) · 20 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Lettuce and tamarind share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 20 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vermicelli

  1. Crush the vermicelli.

  2. Add the crushed vermicelli to boiling salted water.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Drain the vermicelli.

Make the soup

  1. Bring the clear soup to a boil in a saucepan.

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

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add veal and water to another saucepan.

  5. Bring to a boil, skimming carefully.

  6. Wash the rabbit.

  7. Soak it in salt water for 30 minutes.

  8. Pour boiling water over it for a few minutes.

  9. Add rabbit, vegetables, apple, mint, sugar, and curry powder to the boiling soup.

  10. Adjust curry to taste.

  11. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  12. Remove the rabbit and shred the meat.

  13. Continue boiling the soup for 2 more hours.

  14. Strain it through a fine sieve.

  15. Return the soup to the saucepan, add shredded rabbit, lemon juice, and salt.

  16. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  17. Stir in the cream.

Serve

  1. 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. Lettuce + tamarindtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,655 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + tamarindtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  5. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,562 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
Thickens the soup and gives it a soft, starchy body as it cooks.
Tomato purée
Adds acidity and color, rounding the flavor of the soup.
Rabbit
Provides the main meat and savory flavor that enriches the broth.
Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and flavor into the broth, giving body and richness.
Cream
Adds fat that softens the flavor and gives a smooth, rich texture.
Flour
Thickens the soup and helps give it a smooth body.

The step that matters

Skimming the veal stock. Skimming removes foam and coagulated proteins that would otherwise cloud the broth and make its flavor muddy, 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, rabbit, veal, onion, lettuce, tamarind):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, rabbit, veal, onion, lettuce, tamarind. 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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