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Chicken Soup

A clear soup made with whole chickens, carrots, vermicelli, onion, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the chickens in a large soup kettle with the water and grated carrot.

  2. Bring the soup to a boil and skim off any grease that rises.

  3. Boil for three hours.

  4. Remove the chickens.

  5. Strain the broth through a sieve and return it to the kettle.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the vermicelli and boil for one hour.

  2. Add the chopped onion, pepper, salt, mace, and parsley.

  3. If desired, add the thyme just 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.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

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

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chickens
Provide the meat and flavour that make up the body of the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
Vermicelli
Adds starch and body, thickening the soup slightly and giving it substance.
Onion
Contributes savoury depth and aroma as it cooks into the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the grease after boiling begins. Fat that rises early would otherwise emulsify into the broth and make it greasy and cloudy, so removing it as it surfaces keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the thyme

The recipe marks thyme as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, carrot, onion, pepper, mace, parsley):

  1. Thymethe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Cuminfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, onion, pepper, mace, parsley. 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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