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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made from an old chicken, salt, pepper, rice, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Clean and disjoint the chicken, breaking the bones.

  2. Remove the skin and fat, then dice the meat.

  3. Add salt, pepper, and rice to the chicken.

Simmer and finish

  1. Cover with cold water and simmer slowly for 4 hours.

  2. Strain the broth and let it cool.

  3. Remove all fat from the surface.

  4. Optionally, add cream before serving.

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

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

  2. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Releases flavor, gelatin and body into the water as it simmers slowly.
Rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during long simmering.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly and skim the fat. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear, while a hard boil emulsifies fat and cloudy particles into it. Cooling after straining lets fat rise and solidify so it can be removed cleanly.

“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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