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Chicken Milk, No. 1

A clear chicken broth made by simmering chicken pieces, bones, celery, parsley, peppercorns, and salt in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Milk, No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the chicken pieces, bones, neck, celery, parsley stalks, peppercorns, and salt in a china-lined saucepan.

  2. Cover the ingredients with cold water.

  3. Simmer until the chicken is tender and falls from the bones.

  4. Strain the mixture into a flat basin or large bowl.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

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 gelatin-rich connective tissue that give the broth body and flavor.
Chicken bones and neck
Release collagen as they simmer, adding body and a richer mouthfeel to the broth.
Celery
Adds a savory, aromatic background flavor to the broth.
Parsley stalks
Contribute a fresh, herbal aroma without the bitterness of the leaves.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the chicken is tender. A rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat, while gentle simmering keeps it clear and lets collagen dissolve slowly into the liquid.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery. 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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