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Soup

Chicken Soup

A simple soup made by simmering a whole chicken with water, onion, and celery for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Roast or bake the chicken until browned.

  2. Place the chicken in a soup kettle with 3 pints of water.

  3. Set on low heat and skim off any scum.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add the onion and celery, then simmer for about 3 hours.

  2. Remove the chicken and vegetables, then strain the soup.

  3. Use the chicken for salad 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.

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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the meat and flavor that give the soup its body and savory taste.
Water
Forms the liquid base that extracts flavor and gelatin from the chicken during simmering.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens into the broth.
Celery
Contributes a mild, fresh aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Skimming foam that rises early keeps the broth clear and free of off-flavors. Keeping the heat low avoids a rolling boil that would cloud the soup and emulsify fat into it.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion. 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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