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Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering chicken, onion, mace, and seasonings, optionally with rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Broth

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chicken into small pieces and break the bones.

  2. Scald and skin the feet, then wash the neck, gizzard, and liver.

Make the broth

  1. Place these in a stew pan, add the water and salt, and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any foam, then add the onion and mace.

  3. Cook slowly for about 3 hours.

  4. Strain the broth, return it to the pot, and bring to a boil again.

  5. Sprinkle in the rice and simmer for about 20 minutes.

  6. Add the parsley, season with pepper, and 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Old fowl
Gives the broth its main meaty flavour and body as it cooks slowly.
Water
Extracts flavour and gelatin from the bones and meat to form the broth.
Rice
Optional; thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for about 3 hours. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets collagen and flavour release from the bones without making the broth cloudy or greasy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, parsley, rice, pepper. 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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