Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fowl
Pluck all feathers from the fowl and singe off hairs with lighted paper or alcohol.
Wipe the fowl with a wet towel, cut off the head and feet, and draw it carefully.
Scald the head and feet, scrape the skin, and cut off the beak and toes.
Cut the neck into half-inch pieces, clean the gizzard and heart, and chop them.
Make the soup
Peel and slice the onion, then fry it brown in a soup kettle with butter.
Add the fowl to the kettle and brown it slightly.
Fry the prepared parts in hot butter until brown, then add them to the soup kettle.
Pour in cold water, add salt, pepper, diced celery, and mace.
Pour hot water from the frying pan into the soup.
Cover and boil slowly until the chicken is tender.
Once the fowl is tender, remove it for other uses and let the soup cook slowly.
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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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
- Fowl
- Provides the main meat and flavour for the broth as it simmers.
- Butter
- Browns the onion and fowl, adding colour and a rich, toasty aroma.
- Celery
- Adds aromatic flavour to the broth as it simmers.
The step that matters
Browning the onion and fowl in butter. Frying until brown triggers the Maillard reaction, which builds deeper savoury flavour and colour in the broth. Pale frying produces a flatter, less rich soup.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, pepper, celery):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, pepper, celery. 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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