Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Macaroni Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the macaroni
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the macaroni.
Cook until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes.
Cut the macaroni into short lengths.
Make the soup
In a separate pot, bring the stock to a boil.
In a bowl, knead the flour and butter together until smooth, then add to the boiling stock.
Stir the mixture until it is smoothly combined.
Season with salt and pepper, then add the macaroni and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Serve hot.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the flavour of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, helping carry flavour through the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock so the soup becomes smooth and slightly body-rich.
- Macaroni
- Provides the pasta pieces that give the soup its substance and bite.
The step that matters
Knead the flour and butter until smooth before adding to the stock. Flour clumps if added raw to hot liquid. Kneading it with butter into a smooth paste lets it disperse evenly, so the soup thickens without lumps.
“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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