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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering chicken pieces with salt and water, optionally thickened with flour or sago and enriched with egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the chicken.

  2. Cut the chicken in half and remove the lungs.

  3. Cut the halves into small pieces, including bones and flesh.

Make the broth

  1. Place the pieces in a pot, add salt, and pour in cold water.

  2. Simmer for 1.5 hours, then keep warm for an additional 30 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the broth through a sieve or coarse towel.

  2. Season to taste and thicken with flour or sago if desired.

  3. Add a beaten egg yolk for extra nutrition if desired.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main flavour, as the bones and flesh release savoury juices into the broth.
Flour or sago
Thickens the broth as its starch swells when heated, giving it body.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and a slightly thicker, creamier texture to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 1.5 hours. Keep the broth at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil. Vigorous boiling churns fat and proteins into the liquid, making the broth cloudy and greasy, while slow simmering draws flavour out cleanly.

“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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