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Soup

Chicken or Turkey Soup

A clear broth made from roasted turkey or chicken bones, simmered with rice and optional celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,169 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken or Turkey Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place bones and scraps in a pot with cold water.

  2. Slowly bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Skim off the fat from the top and strain the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add rice and salt, then boil until the rice is fully cooked.

  2. Serve hot, adding celery if desired.

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. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  2. Turkey + celerytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turkey + ricetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones and scraps
Release collagen, gelatin and flavor into the water during long simmering.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, thickening the soup slightly and adding body.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat from the top. Fat that rises from the simmering broth can make the soup greasy and cloudy. Chilling the broth lets fat solidify on the surface, making it easy to remove before serving.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, rice):

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, rice. 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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