Why it works: Chicken and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,031 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Giblet Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Crack the bones into small pieces.
Chop the giblets (not very fine).
Cut the meat into strips.
Make the soup
Put all ingredients except flour, butter, and ketchup into a pot over the fire.
Stew slowly for 2 hours.
Remove the giblets with a skimmer and keep the giblets warm.
Thicken and serve
In a bowl, mix 1 cup of hot soup with flour to make a smooth paste.
Stir in 2 tablespoons of butter.
Return the mixture to the pot.
Boil for 15 minutes.
Season with ketchup.
Add the giblets.
Serve.
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.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,031 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,302 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Allspice + tomatotop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together670 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,243 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Flour
- Thickens the soup into a smooth, lightly body-rich liquid when mixed with hot broth and boiled.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the thickened soup.
- Veal
- Contributes meaty flavour and gelatin-rich body to the broth during slow stewing.
- Ham
- Adds salty, smoky savour that deepens the broth during stewing.
- Tomato ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to season the finished soup.
The step that matters
Mixing the flour with hot soup into a smooth paste. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps as its starch grains swell unevenly. Blending it first with a little hot soup into a smooth paste lets the starch disperse before it is returned to the pot and boiled, giving a smooth thickened soup.
Flavor stand-ins for the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, ham, flour, butter, tomato, ketchup):
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, ham, flour, butter, tomato, ketchup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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