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Chicken Broth

A clear soup made by simmering a cleaned chicken with water, rice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the cleaned chicken in a stew pan with 1 quart of cold water and salt to taste.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of rice and boil slowly for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Skim off any foam and remove the skin that separates from the meat.

  4. Add a little parsley or onion for flavor.

Prepare the bread and finish

  1. Toast the slice of bread until brown, then cut it into small squares.

  2. Sprinkle the bread squares with salt and nutmeg.

  3. Pour ⅓ cup of boiling water over the bread and let it stand until cool.

  4. Add 1 teaspoon of sherry wine to enhance the flavor, 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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

  3. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

  4. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  5. Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and body as it simmers slowly in water.
Rice
Adds a little body and starch, slightly thickening the broth as it cooks.
Bread
Toasted and soaked in boiling water, it adds body and a toasted flavor.
Sherry wine
Adds aromatic acidity and depth of flavor to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam. Foam and fat rising during the long simmer can cloud the broth and add off-flavors. Skimming keeps the liquid clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, bread, nutmeg, sherry, wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, bread, nutmeg, sherry, wine. 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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