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Chicken Broth

A chicken broth made with quarters, onion, rice, milk, eggs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Soak the chicken quarters in salt and water for 1 hour.

  2. Place the chicken in a soup kettle with the onion and 4 quarts of water.

  3. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer until the liquid reduces by one-third and the meat shrinks from the bones.

  4. Remove the chicken.

  5. Season the chicken with salt.

  6. Set aside the chicken with 1 cup of broth in a covered bowl until tomorrow.

Finish the soup

  1. Season the remaining broth.

  2. Return the broth to the heat.

  3. Bring the broth to a boil.

  4. Skim the surface of the broth.

  5. Add the soaked rice to the broth.

  6. Cook slowly until the rice is tender.

  7. Stir the hot milk into the beaten eggs.

  8. Add the milk-egg mixture to the soup.

  9. Add the minced parsley to the soup.

  10. Let the soup come to a barely boil before serving.

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

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Softens as it cooks and thickens the broth slightly with its starch.
Eggs
Beaten eggs stirred into hot liquid set into soft strands, adding body and richness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the broth and helps the egg mixture blend smoothly.
Old fowl
Long simmering draws flavour and gelatin from the bones into the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the milk-egg mixture. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture should be stirred into hot broth gradually and the soup kept below a full boil to avoid curdling into lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, 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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