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Chicken Bisque

A creamy chicken soup made with boiled fowl, almonds, crackers, and eggs, simmered and finished with milk.

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

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Clean the fowl.

  2. Boil the fowl slowly in cold water until the flesh slips from the bones.

  3. Season the broth with salt and pepper.

  4. Set the seasoned broth aside until the next day.

  5. Skim the broth.

  6. Remove the fowl from the broth.

Prepare the meat and almonds

  1. Bone and mince the flesh finely.

  2. Shred the almonds into small pieces.

  3. Mix the shredded almonds with the chopped meat, onion, and parsley.

Make the soup

  1. Strain the broth into a pot.

  2. Add the meat mixture to the pot.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, ensuring it does not scorch.

  4. Add the cracker crumbs.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs mixed with hot milk.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Set the soup in boiling water for 5 minutes, covered.

  8. Serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Almond + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  5. Almond + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Old fowl
Provides the main meat and the rich, savoury flavour of the broth.
Almonds
Add body and a nutty richness to the soup's texture.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the soup slightly and give it body.
Raw eggs
Set when heated, adding body and thickening the bisque.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs mixed with hot milk. Eggs thicken when heated, but if the soup is too hot or the eggs are added too quickly they can scramble into curds. Tempering the eggs with hot milk and stirring steadily keeps the bisque smooth.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, parsley, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, milk, pepper, egg. 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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