Name: Veal Soup
Ingredients: 3 pounds veal, broken up; 4 quarts water; ¼ pound macaroni; butter; salt; pepper

Why it works: Veal and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,049 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Combine the veal and water in a large pot and bring to a boil.
Strain the veal soup and season with salt and pepper.

Cook the macaroni

Boil the macaroni in a separate dish in enough water to cover it until tender.
Add a little butter to the macaroni after cooking.

Combine

Add the cooked macaroni to the soup along with the water it was boiled in.

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.

Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,381 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal: Provides the main meaty flavor and body of the broth as it simmers in water.
Macaroni: Adds starchy bulk and a tender, chewy texture to the soup.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the cooked macaroni.

“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.