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Chicken Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, ham, chicken, herbs, carrots, onions, and thickened with bread and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine veal, ham, water, herbs, carrots, onions, peppercorns, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Simmer for 5 hours.

  3. Add the chickens and cook for an additional 1 to 1½ hours.

  4. Strain the stock and let it cool.

  5. Skim off any fat.

Make the soup

  1. In a small portion of boiling stock, steep the bread for a few minutes.

  2. Drain the bread.

  3. Pound the bread with the chicken until well blended.

  4. Gradually mix in the stock until smooth.

  5. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a clean pot.

  6. Heat the mixture.

  7. Stir in the boiling cream.

  8. If the soup is not thick enough, mix the arrow‑root with cold milk or stock, then add it to the soup.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body and flavor of the soup, cooked into the stock and then pounded into the base.
Bread
Soaked and pounded to thicken the soup and give it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel when stirred into the hot soup.
Veal
Contributes gelatin and savory depth to the stock as it simmers for hours.
Arrow-root
Starch that thickens the soup if it is still too thin after the bread is added.

The step that matters

Stir in the boiling cream. Cream can curdle or separate if it is overheated or boiled hard after being added. Keeping the soup hot but not boiling helps it stay smooth and silky.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, chicken, bread, cream, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, chicken, bread, cream, milk. 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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