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Veal Soup

A savory soup made from veal joint, water, macaroni, butter, salt, pepper, optional milk or cream, and optional celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Break up the veal joint and place it in a large pot with 4 quarts of water.

  2. Bring the water to a boil.

  3. Strain the veal soup and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the macaroni

  1. In a separate pot, boil the macaroni in enough water to cover it until tender.

  2. Add a little butter to the macaroni after draining.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the cooked macaroni to the strained soup.

  2. For extra flavor, stir in 1 pint of milk or cream and some celery if desired.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal joint
Gives the soup its main meaty flavor and body as it simmers in water.
Macaroni
Adds starch and bulk, making the soup more substantial to eat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the pasta.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and softens the flavor of the broth when stirred in.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, pepper, milk):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, pepper, milk. 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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