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 Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the soup
Cut up the chicken and boil gently in 3 quarts of water, removing all scum.
Add ½ pint of rice, parsley, pepper, and salt to taste to the soup.
Boil until the chicken is done.
Finish with milk
Stir 1 tablespoon of corn starch into 1 tablespoon of butter, then add ½ pint of sweet milk to the soup.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Rice + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 body for the broth as its collagen softens during gentle boiling.
- Rice
- Releases starch as it simmers, thickening the soup and adding bulk.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk and butter mixture once heated in the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries the cornstarch so it blends smoothly.
- Sweet milk
- Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Stir the cornstarch into the butter before adding the milk. Mixing cornstarch into fat first coats the granules so they disperse instead of clumping when the milk goes in. Starch only thickens when heated, so the soup must be hot for the thickening to set.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, pepper, milk, corn, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Celeryfits about as well
- Turmericfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, pepper, milk, corn, 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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