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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering a whole chicken with water, rice, optional milk and eggs, 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. Cut up the chicken and place it in a pot with 4 quarts of cold water.

  2. Stew until only 3 quarts of liquid remain.

  3. Remove the chicken and season the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the rice and cook until tender.

  2. If desired, stir in the milk and beaten eggs just before serving.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body.
Rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during cooking.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy softness to the finished broth.
Beaten eggs
Add richness and body; they set lightly into soft strands when stirred into hot broth.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and eggs just before serving. Eggs and milk can curdle or turn grainy if they boil for long, so adding them off the heat, just before serving, keeps the broth 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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