Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Conserve

A clear chicken broth thickened with cornstarch and seasoned with white pepper and salt, served with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: White pepper and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,312 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Chicken Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Prepare the broth from 2 chickens.

Thicken and season

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the cornstarch with a little broth to create a slurry.

  2. Add the slurry to the chicken broth and stir until thickened.

  3. Season with white pepper and salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth topped with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

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. White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

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

  3. Chicken + white peppertop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken broth
Forms the base of the soup and carries its savory flavor.
Cornstarch
Thickens the broth into a clear, lightly viscous consommé when heated.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add soft texture and mild richness as a topping.

The step that matters

Adding the slurry. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed in cold or room-temperature broth before it is stirred into hot broth, otherwise it clumps. Starch granules swell and thicken only once heated, so the mixture should be stirred until it visibly thickens.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes