Name: Chicken, Beef, or Veal Broth
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken or 1 pound lean veal or beef; 2 tablespoons washed rice; water; crumbs of crackers or bread (1-2 days old); coarse sea salt to taste

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, Beef, or Veal Broth

Ingredients

1 whole chicken or 1 pound lean veal or beef
2 tablespoons washed rice
water
crumbs of crackers or bread (1-2 days old)
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Make the broth

Cut up the chicken or lean meat.
Add 2 tablespoons of washed rice and enough water to cover.
Boil until tender, about 15 minutes if in a hurry.
Transfer to a bowl or pitcher and cover to keep warm.

Serve

When ready to serve, warm the broth and add cracker or bread crumbs and salt to taste.

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.

Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken or lean meat: Releases flavor and savory body into the water as it simmers.
Washed rice: Adds body and a slight thickening to the broth as its starch releases during cooking.
Cracker or bread crumbs: Thicken the warm broth and add a soft, starchy texture.

“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.