Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Vermicelli Soup Vol-au-Vent
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the stock
Combine the stock, bacon, butter, and fowl in a stew pan.
Stew for 30 minutes.
Remove the fowl and bacon from the soup, and place the bacon on a dish.
Skim the soup to remove impurities.
Finish and serve
Pour the soup over the fowl along with the vermicelli.
Add thinly sliced bread to the soup, then serve.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Vermicelli
- Thin pasta that adds body and a soft bite to the broth.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavor.
- Bacon
- Adds salty, smoky fat that flavors the stock as it stews.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a rounded, fatty mouthfeel.
- Fowl
- Releases meaty flavor into the stock as it simmers.
- Bread
- Soaks up some broth, adding softness and body.
The step that matters
Skim the soup to remove impurities. During simmering, scum and fat rise to the surface. Skimming them off keeps the broth clear and prevents off, bitter flavors from spreading through the soup.
“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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