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Soup

Maccaroni and Parmesan Cheese Soup

A creamy soup of macaroni, veal broth, Parmesan cheese, mace, egg yolks, and cream, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Maccaroni and Parmesan Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the macaroni in 1 quart of veal broth until tender.

  2. Add the grated Parmesan cheese, pounded mace, and 5 pints of veal broth.

  3. Boil together for 5 minutes, then strain through a fine cloth.

  4. Boil again for 10 minutes, skim off any fat, and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

Finish

  1. Mix the egg yolks with the cream and add to the soup.

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. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parmesan cheese + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

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

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Riband macaroni
Provides the pasta pieces that soften in the broth and give the soup body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty depth and richness to the broth.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup slightly when stirred in without boiling.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness, softening the soup's texture.
Veal broth
Forms the base liquid that carries the flavor of the whole soup.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken by gently setting when heated. If the soup is boiling hard when they go in, they can scramble into bits. Add the mixture off the boil and stir steadily.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parmesan cheese, pepper, egg, cream. 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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