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Chicken Milk

A broth made from chicken, water, peppercorns, parsley stems, and celery, then mixed with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the chicken, water, black peppercorns, parsley stems, and celery stalks in a pot.

  2. Boil until the chicken falls off the bones, cracking the marrow bones before boiling.

  3. Strain the broth and store it in a cool place, preferably on ice.

Finish the soup

  1. When ready to use, combine equal parts of broth and milk in a pot and heat to just below boiling.

  2. Add salt to taste.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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 bones that flavour the broth as they simmer.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the broth when heated.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the broth during simmering.

The step that matters

Heat the broth and milk to just below boiling. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot or curdle if it boils too hard, so heating gently keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

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