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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering chicken, water, mace, onion, herbs, salt, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the fowl and all ingredients in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently for 1.5 hours, skimming the broth regularly.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the broth and cool it until needed.

  2. Remove the fat from the top before warming up the desired amount to serve.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

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

  2. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  3. Chicken + macetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl or chicken joints
Provides the main meaty flavour and collagen that gives the broth body.
Onion
Adds a mellow, sweet savoury aroma as it softens during the simmer.
Sweet herbs
Add a fresh, aromatic background flavour to the broth.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note.
Peppercorns
Add a mild, sharp aromatic bite.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and skim regularly. A rolling boil agitates the fat and impurities so they emulsify into the liquid, leaving the broth cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer with regular skimming keeps it clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion. 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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