Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Chop the chickens into pieces and mash the bones.
Add the ham and stew slowly until the meat is tender.
Pour in the boiling water and reduce to half a gallon.
Make the soup
Chop the chicken hearts and mix with egg yolks, bread crumbs, and cream.
Strain the soup, return it to the kettle with herbs, and boil for 5 minutes.
Stir in the cream and remove from heat.
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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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,497 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
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Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provide the meat and bones that build the body and flavour of the broth.
- Hard boiled egg yolks
- Add richness and a smooth, thickened texture to the mixture.
- Bread crumbs
- Bind the chopped hearts and yolks into a cohesive mixture.
- Rich sweet cream
- Adds fat and a silky, mellow texture to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Stir in the cream and remove from heat. Cream can curdle or separate if it boils hard for too long, so it should be added at the end and the soup taken off the heat promptly to keep it smooth.
“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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