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Chicken Soup

A clear broth made from a whole chicken, rice, flour, and cream, seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the chicken in a large pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Set the pot on the back of the stove to cook slowly for 3 hours.

  3. Skim the surface several times during cooking.

  4. Once cooked, bring the pot to a slow boil.

Finish the soup

  1. Mix the flour with a little cold water and add to the pot to thicken.

  2. Stir in the rice and cream or sweet milk.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Just before serving, add a little chopped parsley.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat and the body of the broth as it simmers slowly.
Flour
Thickens the broth so it feels fuller and less watery.
Rice
Adds bulk and soaks up some broth, making the soup more filling.
Cream or sweet milk
Adds richness and a mellow sweetness that softens the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour must be mixed smoothly with cold water before it goes into the hot pot. Added dry or lumpy, starch clumps and does not thicken evenly. Stir it in and keep the soup at a gentle simmer.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, rice, cream, pepper):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, rice, cream, pepper. 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.

More chicken soup recipes

White 9Almond 8Creamy 7Friar's 6Plain 5with Dumplings 3 See all 163 →

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