Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the soup
Take a fat chicken, 5 pints of water, and a slice of middling chopped fine.
Put the soup over a slow fire to simmer instead of boiling the whole morning until about a half hour before dinner, then let it boil.
Thicken and finish
For thickening use a pint of cream, a tablespoon of butter, 1 of flour, and a bunch of thyme.
Add the thickening before it boils and remove the thyme.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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.
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + thymetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,758 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Cream + thymetop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,662 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
- Chicken (in the method)
- Releases flavor and body into the water as it simmers, forming the broth.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the soup.
- Butter
- Adds fat and rounded flavor to the thickened soup.
- Flour (in the method)
- Its starch swells in the hot liquid and thickens the soup.
The step that matters
Add the thickening before it boils. Cream can curdle or separate when it boils hard, so stirring it in before the soup boils and keeping the heat gentle protects its smooth texture.
Swap the thyme
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter):
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macefits better
- Thymethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter. 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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