Why it works: Chicken and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,559 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓
Chicken Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Place the chicken pieces in a large pot and cover with 12 pints of water.
Add 2 ounces of salt and simmer gently for 3 hours.
Skim off any fat that rises to the surface.
Thicken and finish
Make a paste with flour and a little water, then add it to the broth.
Boil the broth for an additional 10 minutes.
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.
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Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Chicken and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,559 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
- Releases flavour and gelatin into the water as it simmers slowly.
- Flour
- Thickens the broth to a lighter body when made into a paste and boiled.
The step that matters
Skimming off the fat. Fat that rises during simmering can make the broth greasy and cloudy. Removing it as it forms keeps the broth clearer and cleaner tasting.
“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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