Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Boil the chicken until it falls apart.
Strain the broth through a wire sieve and let it cool to remove fat.
Thicken and finish
In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and stir in the flour until it turns yellow but not brown.
Gradually add the chicken broth and season with salt.
Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
Beat the egg yolks with the cream and nutmeg, then stir into the soup.
Pound the chicken breast and add it to the soup just before serving.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Chicken
- Supplies the meat and the flavourful broth that forms the base of the soup.
- Butter
- Carries the flour and adds richness to the base of the soup.
- Flour
- Cooked briefly in butter to form a roux that thickens the broth.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup when stirred in with cream.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body, softening the soup's texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the egg yolks into the soup. Adding the yolk and cream mixture to a boiling soup can scramble the eggs. Remove the pan from the heat first, as the recipe does, so the yolks thicken gently instead of curdling.
“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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