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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made from beef, veal, chicken, vegetables, and herbs simmered for hours.

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

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 ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a stock pot, combine the beef, veal, fowl, salt, and cold water, then heat slowly.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add the carrots, onion, cloves, celery, leeks, and tied parsley roots.

  4. Let the mixture boil slowly for 5 hours, adding water as needed to replace evaporation.

  5. Once the fowl is cooked, remove it for later use.

Finish and serve

  1. Skim off the fat.

  2. Strain the broth through a wet napkin into a saucepan.

  3. Keep the broth warm until ready to serve.

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. 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during long simmering.
Lean veal
Adds body and gelatin, giving the broth a fuller mouthfeel.
Fowl
Contributes meaty flavor and is cooked through in the broth for later use.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Celery
Adds savory, herbal aroma that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming off scum at the boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, while a hard rolling boil would emulsify fat and cloud it.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, onion, celery, leek, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, onion, celery, leek, 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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