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Chicken Broth for Invalids

A simple chicken broth made with water, salt, pepper, onion, and almond infusion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Broth for Invalids

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cut up the old fowl and cover it with 1 quart of water.

  2. Simmer gently until the meat is tender and falling apart.

  3. Season with 1 teaspoon mixed salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 1 slice of onion.

  4. Pound the almonds and mix with 2 teaspoons of water, then stir into the broth to enhance the flavor.

  5. Once the fowl has released its flavor, strain the broth.

Finish and reheat

  1. Let it cool and remove the fat before reheating for use.

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.

  1. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + almondtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Old fowl
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body.
Almond
Pounded almonds mixed in add a subtle richness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. A gentle simmer lets the meat become tender and release flavor slowly. A rapid boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion. 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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