Why it works: Veal and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,394 recipes. Both carry 1-nonanal, which smells fatty, waxy. The science ↓
Macaroni Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Prepare a savory stock by boiling bacon bones, a leek, and peppercorns in 4 cups of water for 30 minutes.
Cook the macaroni
Boil macaroni separately until soft but not mushy, about 30 minutes.
Drain and rinse the macaroni in cold water, then cut into ¼ inch pieces.
Serve
Add the macaroni to the gravy soup and 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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Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,394 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
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Mutton + leektop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Veal + leektop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together334 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Provides the starchy body and soft, bite-sized pieces that thicken the soup as it sits.
- Bacon bones
- Release fat and savory flavor into the stock, giving the soup its smoky depth.
- Leek
- Adds a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the stock.
- Peppercorns
- Contribute a sharp, aromatic warmth that seasons the stock.
The step that matters
Boil the macaroni separately until soft but not mushy. Pasta keeps absorbing liquid and softening, so overcooking it in the soup turns it mushy and cloudy. Cooking it separately, then rinsing, stops the starch from thickening the broth unevenly.
Swap the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mutton):
- Carrotfits about as well
- Leekthe original
- Onionfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mutton. 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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