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Macaroni Soup

A simple macaroni soup with butter, onion, garlic, and clear gravy, served with Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bring a pan of water to a fast boil.

  2. Add the macaroni, butter, onion, and garlic cloves to the boiling water.

  3. Cook until the macaroni swells and becomes tender, then drain well.

  4. Cut the cooked macaroni into half-inch lengths.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the macaroni to the gravy soup and let it simmer for a few minutes.

  2. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,717 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Provides the body and bulk of the soup as its starch swells and softens.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel as it cooks with the pasta.
Onion
Contributes savory aroma and sweetness as it softens in the boiling water.
Clear gravy soup
Serves as the savory liquid base that carries flavor and moisture through the dish.

The step that matters

Cook the macaroni until just tender, then drain well. Pasta keeps softening after it leaves the pot, and it continues to absorb liquid in hot soup. Stopping at tender, and draining well, helps prevent it from turning mushy once it is added to the gravy soup.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, parmesan cheese):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, parmesan cheese. 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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