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A New Jersey Broth

A broth made with stock, tomatoes, peas, celery, onion, rice, and roux, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley, and optional summer savory.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A New Jersey Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the stock in a pot.

  2. Add the parboiled vegetables, except for the tomatoes.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Stir in the parsley and cook for 1 minute.

  5. Add the roux and simmer for 5 more minutes.

  6. Pour out the broth to serve.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 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

Stock
Forms the liquid base and carries most of the broth's flavor.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, giving the broth a bright, tangy edge.
White roux
Thickens the broth as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and a mild sweetness as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma to the savory base.
Boiled rice
Adds soft texture and a little extra body to the broth.

The step that matters

Add the roux and simmer for 5 more minutes. Roux is flour cooked in fat, and its starch thickens as it heats. Whisk it smoothly into the simmering broth to prevent lumps, then simmer long enough to cook off the raw flour taste.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, celery, onion, rice, pepper, parsley):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, celery, onion, rice, pepper, parsley. 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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