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Chicken Bouillon

A clear chicken stock made by simmering chicken pieces, seasoning, and gelatin for a jellied consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper 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 Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the chicken pieces in a porcelain-lined kettle and cover with cold water.

  2. Simmer for four hours.

  3. Season with celery salt, pepper, and onion juice, then let cool.

  4. Once cooled, skim off the fat and strain out the bones and meat.

  5. Return the liquid to the heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of water for one hour, then add it to the hot soup.

  2. Once the gelatine is dissolved, strain the soup through a cheese-cloth bag.

  3. Serve hot or let cool and refrigerate for iced and jellied chicken bouillon.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cooled broth into a jelly when it is refrigerated.
Fowl
Releases flavour and body into the water during long simmering.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatine to the hot soup. Gelatine must be soaked first and then fully dissolved in hot liquid; if it is added cold or not dissolved, it leaves lumps and will not set evenly when the bouillon is chilled.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper. 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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