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Chicken Broth

A clear soup made by simmering chicken, rice, vegetables, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the chicken in a large pot with the water, vegetables, and spices tied in a muslin cloth.

  2. Simmer gently for about 2 hours.

  3. Remove the chicken.

  4. Strain the broth.

Prepare the garnishes

  1. Cut the carrot into fancy shapes.

  2. Dice the chicken breast.

Finish and serve

  1. Reheat the broth.

  2. Season to taste.

  3. Add the previously boiled rice, chicken dice, prepared carrot, and parsley.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and supplies the diced meat for the soup.
Rice
Adds body and starch, thickening the broth slightly and giving the soup substance.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the broth.
Carrot
Contributes mild sweetness and color, and a firm bite to the finished soup.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, carrot, onion, celery, clove, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, carrot, onion, celery, clove, 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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