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Macaroni Soup

A veal stock soup thickened with flour and cream, containing macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Make a good stock with the veal, marjoram, parsley, salt, white pepper, mace, and onions.

  2. Strain the stock and boil it.

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into small bits.

  2. Gently simmer the macaroni in the milk and water until tender.

  3. Strain the macaroni.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the macaroni to the soup.

  2. Thicken the soup by stirring in flour mixed in the cream gradually.

  3. Boil the soup for a few 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. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Marjoram + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the stock its body and savoury meaty flavour.
Macaroni
Provides the starchy pasta pieces that give the soup substance and bite.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it is stirred into the cream and heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness as the macaroni cooks.
Onions
Build savoury, sweet depth of flavour in the stock.

The step that matters

Thickening the soup with flour and cream. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps into lumps. Mixing it smoothly into the cream first and stirring in gradually lets the starch disperse evenly, so the soup thickens smoothly as it heats.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, marjoram, parsley, mace, onion, milk, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, marjoram, parsley, mace, onion, milk, flour. 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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