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Chicken Soup

A broth made from chicken, rice, flour, milk, cracker, cream, butter, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut up the chicken.

  2. Place the chicken in 3 quarts of cold water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Cook the rice in a separate dish.

  5. Remove the meat and bones from the chicken once it is well done.

  6. Skim off all the fat from the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cooked rice, flour mixed smoothly with milk, rolled cracker, cream, butter, salt, and pepper to the broth. Stir the soup well.

  2. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat and the flavour base for the broth.
Rice
Cooked separately and added to thicken the soup slightly and add body.
Flour
Mixed smooth with milk to thicken the broth as it heats.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Rolled cracker
Adds body and some starch that helps thicken the soup.

The step that matters

Mix the flour smoothly with milk before adding it. Flour dropped into hot liquid clumps as its starch grains swell unevenly on the outside. Blending it smoothly with cold milk first lets the grains disperse, so the broth thickens evenly.

“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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