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Pectoral Broth

A broth made by simmering an old fowl with barley, onions, carrot, herbs, and seasonings, finished with egg yolk and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Pectoral Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the fowl, heart, gizzard, liver, and water.

  2. Add the barley, onions, carrot, thyme, parsley, marjoram, and marshmallow root.

  3. Simmer gently for 3 hours.

Finish and reduce

  1. Strain the broth and press the barley through a sieve.

  2. Stir in pepper, salt, egg yolk, and brandy.

  3. Reduce the mixture to about 1 quart.

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.

  1. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Gives the broth its main body and savoury meaty flavour as it simmers.
Barley
Thickens the broth as its starch breaks down and is pressed through the sieve.
Egg yolk
Enriches the broth and adds richness and body when stirred in.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the long-simmered broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk can scramble and curdle if it meets very hot liquid. Stir it in gently, off the boil, so it blends smoothly and thickens rather than turning grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, carrot, thyme, parsley, marjoram, pepper, egg):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, carrot, thyme, parsley, marjoram, pepper, egg. 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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