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Vermicelli Soup

A veal broth with vegetables and vermicelli, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Vermicelli Soup

Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vermicelli Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the shin of veal, onion, carrots, turnips, and salt into a large pot with 4 quarts of water.

  2. Boil for 3 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the vermicelli and continue boiling for an additional 1.5 hours.

  2. Before serving, remove the bone and vegetables.

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. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

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

  3. Onion + turniptop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together7,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Veal + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,015 recipes

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

  5. Veal + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal shin
Releases gelatin and flavor into the water, giving the broth body and depth.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that softens and thickens the soup as it cooks in the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth as they cook.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth during long simmering.

The step that matters

Adding the vermicelli. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid and swelling while it simmers, so after the long boil it can turn soft and mushy. Adding it late and serving promptly helps keep its texture and keeps the broth from thickening too much.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip):

  1. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Beetrootabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip. 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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