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Chicken Bisque

A creamy chicken soup made with bone‑minced meat, almonds, crackers, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Chicken Bisque

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 Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Clean the fowl.

  2. Boil the fowl slowly in cold water until the flesh slips from the bones.

  3. Season the broth with salt and pepper.

  4. Set the seasoned broth aside until the next day.

  5. Skim the broth.

  6. Remove the fowl from the broth.

Prepare the meat and almonds

  1. Bone and mince the fowl flesh finely.

  2. Shred the almonds into small shavings.

  3. Mix the shredded almonds with the chopped meat, onion, and parsley.

Make the bisque

  1. Strain the broth into a pot.

  2. Add the meat mixture to the pot.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, ensuring it does not scorch.

  4. Add the cracker crumbs to the pot.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs mixed with hot milk.

  6. Remove the pot from heat.

  7. Set the pot in boiling water for 5 minutes, covered.

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

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

  4. Almond + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  5. Almond + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Old fowl
Provides the flavorful broth and the cooked meat that forms the body of the bisque.
Almonds
Add richness and a fine, creamy body when shredded into the soup.
Cracker crumbs
Thicken the broth, giving the bisque body and a smooth texture.
Raw eggs
Enrich and thicken the bisque as they set gently with the hot milk.
Hot milk
Adds creaminess and softness, and helps the eggs blend in smoothly.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs and milk. Eggs set when heated, so they can curdle into lumps if added to a boiling liquid. Mixing them with hot milk first and removing the pot from heat helps them thicken the bisque smoothly.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

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