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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering chicken pieces with celery, parsley, salt, and milk.

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

Why it works: Celery and parsley 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 Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl

  1. Cut the fowl into small pieces, discarding the fat and skin unless tender and white.

  2. Cover the pieces with cold water and simmer gently for six hours.

  3. Cool the broth overnight and remove the fat.

Make the broth

  1. In a saucepan, combine the celery, parsley, and a little salt.

  2. Add 1 pint of the chicken jelly and some of the meat, then boil until the meat falls from the bones.

  3. Strain the mixture and add 1 pint of fresh milk.

  4. Bring to a boil several times and strain into a cup.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Provides the meat and the rich gelatinous jelly that gives the broth body.
Chicken jelly
Adds body and a savoury, gelling richness to the broth.
Fresh milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil several times and strain into a cup. Milk scorches and can curdle if it boils too hard or sits on the heat too long. Gentle heating keeps the broth smooth, and straining removes any solids that formed.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, meat, 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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