Name: Consomme a LA Reine
Ingredients: 1 quart chicken stock; 1 tablespoon onion; 2 tablespoons minced vegetables

Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Consomme a LA Reine

Ingredients

1 quart chicken stock
1 tablespoon onion
2 tablespoons minced vegetables

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Simmer the broth

In a pot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer.
Add the onion and minced vegetables.
Cook for 20 minutes, skimming off any foam that forms.

Strain and serve

Strain the broth through a fine sieve before serving.

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.

Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the consommé.
Onion: Adds savory aroma and mild sweetness to the broth as it simmers.
Minced vegetables: Release their flavor into the broth during simmering, adding aroma.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam during the simmer. Foam carries coagulated proteins and impurities that cloud the broth. Skimming them as they rise keeps the consommé clear. A vigorous boil would break the foam into the liquid and make it cloudy, so keep the heat gentle.

“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.