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Macaroni Soup

A hearty soup made with bones, vegetables, herbs, and macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bones

  1. Cut off all the meat from the bones.

  2. Break the bones into pieces and place them in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them and 1 quart more.

  3. Bring the saucepan to a boil.

  4. Once boiling, add 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt to help the scum rise.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel the turnip and cut it into quarters.

  2. Wash, scrape, and quarter the carrots; wash and finely shred the leeks.

  3. Peel the onions and insert 2 cloves into each onion.

Simmer the soup

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

  2. Move the saucepan to the side of the fire and let it simmer gently for 2.5 hours.

  3. Raise the lid slightly to allow steam to escape.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release flavour and body into the broth during long simmering.
Leeks
Add mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the broth.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften in the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour to the broth.
Macaroni
Adds starch and bulk, making the soup more substantial.

The step that matters

Skim the soup well. Scum and fat rising during the first boil can cloud the broth and taste greasy. Removing them before adding vegetables keeps the soup clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

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