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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering a whole chicken with water, rice, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Crack the bones of the fowl and place it in a pot with 3 pints of cold water.

  2. Boil slowly, covered, for 3 to 4 hours, until the meat falls apart.

  3. Strain the broth and return it to the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the soaked rice and chopped parsley, if using.

  2. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Serve with broken crackers added 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Long simmering breaks down the meat and bones, releasing gelatin and flavor into the water.
Rice
Starch thickens the broth slightly and gives it body as the grains soften.
Crackers
Starchy crumbs soak up broth, adding body and a soft, bready texture when served.

The step that matters

Boil slowly, covered, for 3 to 4 hours. A gentle simmer extracts flavor and collagen clearly, while a hard boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat. Keeping the lid on limits evaporation so the broth stays concentrated.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, pepper):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, pepper. 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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