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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering chicken with optional herbs, grains, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chicken into small pieces and break the bones.

  2. Soak the chicken in cold water for 1 hour.

Cook the broth

  1. Simmer the chicken covered for 2 hours.

  2. Boil the chicken for an additional 2 hours.

  3. Strain the broth and let it cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cool, remove the fat from the surface.

  2. Reheat the broth when needed and season with salt to taste.

  3. For a convalescent, add herbs, rice, barley, bread, onion, celery, or parsley if desired.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Rice + barleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the meat, bones and collagen that give the broth its body and flavour.
Cold water
Extracts flavour and gelatin from the chicken as it heats slowly.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Removing the fat after cooling. Fat that is skimmed while the broth is cool solidifies on the surface and lifts off cleanly. Skimming hot broth leaves greasy droplets mixed throughout.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, barley, bread, celery, parsley):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, barley, bread, celery, parsley. 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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