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Chicken Soup

A clear soup made with chicken cooking water, carrots, celery, onion, peppercorns, bay leaf, ham, and boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a porcelain pot, combine the chicken cooking water, diced carrots, chopped celery, finely chopped onion, peppercorns, bay leaf, and chopped ham.

  2. Bring the mixture to a gradual boil, then simmer.

  3. Strain the soup through a colander and stir in the boiled rice.

  4. If the soup is too rich, add a little water.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Add sweetness and body as they soften during simmering.
Onion
Builds savory depth as it softens and releases its aromatic flavor into the broth.
Boiled rice
Thickens the soup slightly and adds starchy body.
Lean boiled ham
Contributes salty, savory meaty flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a gradual boil, then simmer. Boiling vigorously makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the solids. A gradual heat and gentle simmer keep the soup clear and the vegetables tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, carrot, celery, ham, rice):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, celery, ham, rice. 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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