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Bouillon De Poulet Pour Malade

A chicken broth with lettuce, served with butter, intended for ill patients.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Bouillon De Poulet Pour Malade

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Break the chicken carcass into pieces.

  2. Boil 1 liter of water in a pot.

  3. Add the chicken pieces and a pinch of coarse sea salt to the boiling water.

  4. Cook for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Blanch the lettuce heads before adding them to the broth.

  2. If the patient starts to eat, drain the lettuce and serve it with a little fresh butter.

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. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,421 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Lettuce + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean chicken carcass
Provides the main flavour and body for the broth as it simmers.
Lettuce heads
Adds mild vegetable flavour and a soft, tender texture to the broth.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavour of the lettuce when served.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter. 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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