Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Broth

A clear soup made by simmering a skinned fowl with water, bread crust, mace, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Chicken Broth

Why it works: Bread and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,005 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the bones of the fowl into pieces using a rolling pin.

  2. Combine the fowl pieces, water, bread crust, and mace in a pot.

Simmer and strain

  1. Cover and boil slowly for 5 to 6 hours, skimming occasionally.

  2. Strain the broth and return it to the pot.

  3. Add 1 quart of boiling water and cover.

  4. Boil softly until flavorful, then strain again.

  5. Season with coarse sea salt to taste.

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. Bread + macetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Breaking the bones releases marrow and collagen, which give the broth body and savory depth.
Water
Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor and gelatin from the bones and meat over long simmering.
Bread crust
Adds a subtle toasty aroma and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the long simmer. Slow boiling for hours lets fat and fine impurities rise to the surface; skimming them keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result. Boiling hard instead of gently can emulsify fat into the liquid.

“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.

More chicken broth recipes

for the Sick 3with Rice 3 See all 336 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes