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Soup

Jackson, Tenn

A clear chicken soup made by simmering chicken, vegetables, and seasonings, then skimming fat and thickening with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Jackson, Tenn

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Into a frying pan put two tablespoons butter and add four spoons minced onion, two tablespoons each of minced carrot and minced celery; cook slowly twenty minutes, draw over to a hotter part of the stove, and stir till a light brown.

  2. Add to this two and one-half quarts hot water in which a fowl has been boiled.

  3. Tie in a netting bag half teaspoon of whole black pepper, one bay leaf, one leaf of sage, one sprig of parsley, two whole cloves, one small stick of cinnamon, tiny bit of mace, and put it in the boiling soup.

  4. Boil slowly for one hour, then add one tablespoon of salt, strain through a cloth and set away to cool.

Cool and finish

  1. When cold, skim off all fat and the soup will be ready to be heated to the boiling point and served as a simple consomme, or it may have any kind of garnish added to it.

Make the stock

  1. Cut chicken into joints and put into three quarts of cold water.

  2. Boil for one-half hour; add seasoning and simmer gently until the meat leaves the bone.

  3. Strain, and when cold remove the fat; this jelly that is left is the stock.

Make the cream soup

  1. For this stock allow one heavy pint of milk; put stock on to boil and milk to heat; melt one tablespoon butter, add one tablespoon flour and stir till smooth; pour on this slowly the stock, then add the milk slowly, stirring till smooth, and cook till slightly thickened; season with salt and pepper; beat up an egg lightly and pour the soup into the tureen.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

515Calories
42 gProtein
24 gFat
35 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 15 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Sage1 tsp ground (0.7g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Leafnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. See the original page.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Its meat and bones release flavor and gelatin, giving the stock body.
Milk
Adds richness and softness to the finished cream soup.
Flour (in the method)
Cooked with butter into a roux that thickens the soup.
Butter
Carries flavor in the base and forms the roux with flour.
Onion
Sweet aromatic base that flavors the stock.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and aroma to the base.

The step that matters

Adding the stock to the roux. Pouring the hot stock in slowly while stirring keeps the flour smoothly dispersed. Adding it all at once lets flour clump into lumps that won't smooth out easily.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, pepper, parsley, chicken, celery, sage):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, pepper, parsley, chicken, celery, sage. 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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