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Macaroni-soup, with Cream

A soup of chicken, veal, vegetables, macaroni, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Macaroni-soup, with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine hen, veal, salt, and water in a small stockpot. Bring to a boil, skim the liquid, then reduce heat.

  2. Add carrot, onion, leek, and celery. Simmer for four hours.

  3. Strain the broth through a napkin and skim off the fat.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter and mix in flour to create a light roux. Cook for a few minutes.

  2. Gradually add the broth to the roux, stirring until boiling, then remove from heat.

  3. After 25 minutes, strain the soup through a sieve.

  4. Boil macaroni in salted water until done, then drain and cut into 1‑inch pieces. Add to the soup.

  5. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, parmesan, and cream. Mix into the soup with a piece of butter, cooking gently without boiling.

  6. Serve in a tureen.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Hen
Gives the broth its main body and savory meaty flavor.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin and depth, giving the broth a fuller mouthfeel.
Butter
Enriches the soup with fat and a rich, smooth flavor.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a light roux, giving the soup body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and, when gently heated, thicken the soup into a creamy texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk mixture. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble if the soup boils, leaving grainy specks. Keep the heat low and stir steadily once they are added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, leek, celery, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, leek, celery, butter, flour, egg. 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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