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Macaroni Soup

A hearty soup made with beef or mutton bones, vegetables, mace, peppercorns, and macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bones

  1. Cut the meat off the bones and break them up.

  2. Place the bones in a saucepan and cover with cold water plus 1 quart more.

  3. Bring to a boil and add 1 tablespoon of salt to help the scum rise.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel and quarter the turnip, wash and scrape the carrots, and cut them into quarters.

  2. Wash the leeks and shred them finely, then place all vegetables in cold water to keep fresh.

  3. Peel the onions and stick 2 cloves into one onion.

Make the soup

  1. Skim the soup, then add the prepared vegetables, mace, and peppercorns.

  2. Simmer gently for 2.5 hours, slightly raising the lid to let out steam.

Cook the macaroni

  1. In a separate saucepan, boil water for the macaroni.

  2. Add ¼ pound of macaroni and sprinkle with ½ saltspoonful of salt.

  3. Boil until tender, about 30 minutes, then strain and rinse with cold water.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or mutton bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during long simmering.
Leeks
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color to the broth.
Macaroni
Provides starch and body as the pasta cooks until tender.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after boiling. Proteins and fats that rise as scum can cloud the broth and taste greasy if left in, so removing them keeps the soup clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, carrot, leek, onion, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, carrot, leek, onion, clove. 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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