Why it works: Chicken and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,314 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Soupe a LA Reine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth base
Place the chickens and parsley in a stewpan with the broth.
Let it stew for 1 hour.
Remove the chickens and soak the crumbs of the rolls in the broth.
Make the soup
Pick the flesh from the chickens and pound it with the egg yolks.
Mix the chicken flesh and egg yolks with the broth and soaked roll crumbs.
Boil the cream in a separate pot, stirring occasionally until it boils.
Pour the cream into the soup and strain the mixture through a tammy.
Chill and reheat
Chill the soup in the larder until dinner time.
To reheat, place one stewpan into another with boiling water in between.
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.
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Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,314 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,765 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,241 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Parsley + creamtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,392 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provide the flesh and flavorful stock that form the body of the soup.
- French rolls
- Soaked in broth and blended in, they thicken the soup and give it body.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the pounded chicken flesh and enrich the soup, adding richness and smooth texture.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Pour the cream into the soup and strain the mixture through a tammy. Boiling the cream first and then straining removes any fibres and lumps from the pounded chicken and crumbs, so the soup stays smooth. Egg yolks in a hot mixture can curdle if overheated, so the soup should not be allowed to boil once they are in.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, cream. 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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