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Friar's Chicken Soup

A soup made from whole chickens simmered in water or stock, flavored with parsley, eggs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Friar's Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut up the chickens.

  2. Place them in a saucepan with water or stock.

  3. Cook until the chickens are done.

  4. Keep them hot.

Finish the soup

  1. Shred the parsley.

  2. Add the shredded parsley to the saucepan.

  3. Simmer for a few minutes.

  4. Stir in the beaten eggs.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  7. Serve with the chicken in a tureen.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main body and flavor of the broth as they cook.
Eggs
Thicken the broth slightly and add richness when stirred in.
Water or stock
Forms the liquid base that the chicken cooks in and becomes the soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs. Eggs thicken when heated gently. Adding them to a boiling soup can scramble them, so remove the pan from heat first and stir steadily.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, pepper. 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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