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Chicken Broth

A broth made from young fowl, rice, water, coriander seed, poppy grains, crayfish, and borage leaves.

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

Why it works: Rice and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,854 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the cut-up fowl in a small well-tinned stew pan.

  2. Add the rice and water, then skim the surface.

  3. Add coriander seed and poppy grains, and boil gently for 2 hours.

  4. Add the crayfish and boil for an additional 15 to 20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the borage leaves, cover, and remove from heat to infuse for 15 minutes.

  2. Pass the broth through a silk sieve and serve lukewarm.

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. Rice + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,854 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Coriander + boragetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Rice + crayfishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Rice + boragetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Crayfish + boragetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Young fowl
Provides the main meat flavour and body as it simmers into the broth.
Rice
Adds body and a little starch that gives the broth a softer texture.
River crayfish
Contributes shellfish sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after adding the water. Skimming removes foam and scum that rise as the liquid heats. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and prevents off flavours from being absorbed back into it during the long simmer.

Swap the borage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, coriander, crayfish):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Boragethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, coriander, crayfish. 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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