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Bacon and Fowl Broth

A hearty broth made with bacon, fowl, rice, onions, cloves, peppercorns, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bacon and Fowl Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the bacon and fowls with enough water to cover them.

  2. Simmer for 1 to 2 hours to create a rich broth.

  3. Remove the meat and strain the broth.

Finish the broth

  1. Add the rice to the broth and cook until tender.

  2. In a separate pan, sauté the onions until golden, then add to the broth.

  3. Season with cloves, peppercorns, and allspice.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Rice + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Releases fat and savory flavor into the broth as it simmers.
Whole fowls
Provide meat and body-building flavor to the broth as they simmer.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and thickens the broth as it cooks until tender.
Onions
Browning them adds sweetness and deeper aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering the broth for 1 to 2 hours. A gentle simmer extracts flavor and gelatin gradually. Boiling hard makes the broth cloudy and greasy, so keep it at a slow bubble.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, clove, allspice. 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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