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Chicken Stock

A clear liquid made by simmering a hen in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Chicken Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hen

  1. Singe and scrub the hen fowl.

  2. Prepare the hen as for roasting, omitting the stuffing.

Make the stock

  1. Place the hen in a kettle and cover with boiling water.

  2. Cook slowly until the fowl is tender.

  3. Remove the fowl from the broth and cool the broth quickly.

  4. When cold, remove the fat from the broth.

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

What each ingredient does

Hen fowl
Provides the meat, skin and bones that flavour and body the broth as it simmers.
Boiling water
Extracts flavour and gelatin from the bird into the liquid as it cooks slowly.

The step that matters

Cooking slowly until the fowl is tender. Gentle simmering keeps the broth clear and extracts flavour gradually, while a rolling boil clouds the liquid and toughens the meat.

“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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