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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering chicken pieces, celery, and water, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the chicken pieces, cold water, and celery.

  2. Cover and simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  3. Carefully remove all fat and strain the broth.

Finish

  1. Add salt to taste.

  2. If desired, add rice 30 minutes before the chicken is done.

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

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

  2. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  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

Chicken
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body and savoriness.
Cold water
Serves as the cooking liquid that extracts flavor from the chicken and celery.
Celery
Adds a mild, aromatic vegetable flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Carefully remove all fat and strain the broth. Fat that is not removed floats on the surface and makes the broth greasy and cloudy. Skimming and straining while the broth is still hot clears it and gives a cleaner taste.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Corianderfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, 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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