Name: Maccaroni or Vermicelli Soup
Ingredients: ½ ounce vermicelli or macaroni per person; boiling broth; 1 stalk celery; 1 shin of beef; 2 calf's feet or 6 sheep's trotters; 5 quarts water; 6 carrots, sliced; 6 turnips, sliced; 6 onions, sliced; some sweet herbs; black pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; 1 teaspoon sugar

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,172 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together10,172 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,001 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together16,001 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Vermicelli or macaroni: Forms the starchy body of the soup, soaking up broth and adding substance to each spoonful.
Beef shin: Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the water during long simmering, giving the consommé body.
Calf's feet or sheep's trotters: Adds collagen that dissolves into gelatin, giving the clarified broth a fuller mouthfeel.
Carrots: Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmered broth.
Onions: Build savoury depth as they soften and release their flavour into the broth.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the consommé. Fat that is not fully removed after cooling stays as greasy droplets on the surface and dulls the clarity and mouthfeel of the broth. Chilling the strained liquid lets the fat solidify so it can be lifted off cleanly.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, beef, carrot, turnip, pepper, sugar):

Parsnipbetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Potatobetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, beef, carrot, turnip, pepper, sugar. 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.