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Chicken Soup

A light chicken broth soup thickened with tapioca, milk, and eggs, garnished with beaten egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Scald the chicken broth and onion together.

  2. Stir in the celery salt, sweet herb, and tapioca.

  3. Cook for 25 minutes.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the scalded milk with the egg yolks and cream.

  2. Remove the soup from heat.

  3. Stir in the milk mixture, thickening without boiling.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Drop a beaten egg white on top of each serving.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its flavor.
Minute tapioca
Thickens the broth as it cooks, giving the soup body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when stirred in off the heat.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the soup base.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the milk mixture in off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heating. If the soup boils after they are added, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth, thickened soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, milk, egg, cream, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, milk, egg, 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.

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