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Chicken Soup

A broth made from chicken feet, legs, whole chicken, onions, celery, mushrooms, and oysters, served with butter, parsley, and sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut off the feet and legs of the chicken.

  2. Scald them to remove the skin and nails.

  3. Place them in a stewpan.

  4. Add the onions, celery, and chopped mushrooms to the stewpan.

  5. Split the chicken down the back. Scald the inside. Remove any leftover trussing.

  6. Cut the back into four pieces.

  7. Cut the breast into two pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Cover with cold water.

  2. Stew gently with a close cover for 1.5 hours.

  3. Skim carefully.

  4. Remove the feet.

  5. Mix the minced oysters with their liquor and flour. Add the oyster mixture to the pot.

  6. Add rice to the pot to thicken the broth if desired.

Serve

  1. Serve the chicken with melted butter, parsley, or sauces, garnished with toasted ham or bacon.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

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

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat and the flavourful body of the broth as it stews.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury depth to the broth when minced and stirred in.
Flour
Thickens the broth slightly when mixed with the oysters and their liquor.
Rice
Thickens the broth further when added, if desired.
Onions
Build savoury sweetness and aroma as they simmer in the broth.

The step that matters

Stew gently with a close cover. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and the chicken tender. Boiling hard emulsifies fat into the liquid and toughens the meat, so the heat must stay low.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, mushroom, oyster, flour, rice, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, mushroom, oyster, flour, rice, butter. 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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