Name: Chicken Broth
Ingredients: 1 full grown chicken; 1 gallon cold water; 6 crackers, pulverized; 1 cup cream or new milk; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

Separate every joint of the chicken.
Combine the chicken with cold water in a pot.
Boil until about 3 pints of liquid remain.
Skim off any grease.

Finish and serve

Just before serving, add pulverized crackers and cream or milk.
Season with salt and pepper.

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.

Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,241 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Gives the broth its main meaty flavor as it simmers in the water.
Cold water: Serves as the liquid that extracts flavor from the chicken during long simmering.
Pulverized crackers: Thicken the broth slightly as their starch absorbs liquid.
Cream or new milk: Adds richness and a smoother, creamier body to the broth.

“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.