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Chicken Soup in Cans

A preserved chicken soup made with canned chicken, rice, flour, spices, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Soup in Cans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Singe and wash the chickens in cold water. Replace water if discolored.

  2. Chop the chickens into small pieces and cook for 10 minutes. Place them in cold water until ready to stuff into cans.

Make the soup

  1. In a 2-pound can, add 6 ounces of prepared chicken and 2 ounces of cooked rice.

  2. Prepare the soup by boiling down 50 gallons to 25 gallons, then add 8 gallons of sweet milk.

  3. Mix 20 pounds of wheat flour with the soup to make a thin batter, ensuring no lumps.

  4. Season the soup with 10 ounces of white pepper, 4 ounces of curry powder, 2 pounds of salt, and 2 pounds of sugar.

  5. Cook the mixture in a jacketed kettle for 1 hour, stirring well until it has a light color.

Can and process

  1. Fill the cans with the soup, wipe clean, and cap, leaving center vents open.

  2. Place the cans in a retort and boil for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 2.5 pounds pressure.

  3. Slowly release pressure, stop vents quickly, and return the cans to the retort for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 8 pounds pressure.

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

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

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Rice + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together423 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 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

Chickens
Provide the main meat and savory flavor of the soup.
Wheat flour
Thickens the soup into a batter-like body as it cooks.
Sweet milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the soup base.
Curry powder
Adds warm spice aroma and flavor to the soup.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the salt and spices.

The step that matters

Thickening the soup with flour. Flour added to hot liquid can clump instantly. Mixing it into a thin batter first and stirring well keeps the mixture smooth, and cooking it fully removes raw flour taste and thickens the soup evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, milk, wheat, flour, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, milk, wheat, flour, sugar. 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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