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While looking for the more appropriate English version of the Italian proverb "gallina vecchia fa buon brodo":

Proverbio: "è sempre bene fidarsi di chi ha esperienza". - È usato spesso per giustificare un rapporto amoroso con una donna non più giovane. Le carni di una gallina ormai vecchia risultano le migliori per dare un brodo saporito.

(Proverb: "it is always good to trust those with experience". - It is often used to justify a loving relationship with a woman who is no longer young. Meat from a now old chicken is the best to give a flavorful broth.)

  • Note that, despite its appearance, the saying is not used as an insult, but to convey the idea of a more experienced person.

I have found only literal translations as the one suggested by the Collins Dictionary. But checking with Ngram the proverb "old hen makes good broth" does not appear to be commonly used in English and the only the UD mentions it, saying that it is known in Latin American cultures.

Questions:

It the proverb (old hen makes good broth) actually used in BrE, AmE or other English dialects?

What other saying is used to convey the above mentioned concept?

2 Answers2

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While I think the proverb in the question would be understood by British English speakers, it is not in standard English usage, in my experience. The more common similar proverb, which would not be specific to women, or romantic relationships, would be

there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle
proverb
Someone's abilities do not depend on their being young.

However, at www.phrases.org.uk there is a post which asserts that the phrase is

almost always used with a winkingly sexual connotation.

This is borne out by a comment on a story in the Brighton and Hove paper The Argus, about a woman in her 50s stalking a 22 year old man:

Many a good tune played on an old fiddle! And she was loading him up with cash, and she worked for the Halifax, opportunity missed there boy!

And again in comments on this story about a Policeman carrying an old woman's shopping

Many a good tune played on an old fiddle boi.

and in comments below this competition to win an evening with Sophia Loren

'Past her prime' springs to mind, but still would purely so I could say I had. Plus I bet she's filth..

Yup, many a good tune played on an old fiddle X)

This forum thread on Armed Forces slang is very specific:

"There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle." (Bonking a lady 20 years your senior.)

and I'll round off with a song from Sussex in the 1950s in which the speaker is thrice widowed and no longer young, which juxtaposes the phrase with 'old hens':

Come all you young men and don't keep me waiting,
For I feel like a fish that is out of the sea,
If I don't soon get married it's true what I'm stating
I shall go wrong if some young man don't marry me.
I've got a blind pig, an old bull and a cow too
I've got some old cocks and old hens too, I'll vow,
And there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle,
I wonder if anyone will marry me now.

Spagirl
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It is rarely used outside references to Italian culture, however:

In Eugene Nelson's Bracero (1975):

The pimp frowned archly and said, " 'An old hen makes good broth,' hombre." With his small hand he described an exaggerated curve down the woman's side.

Eugene Nelson was an American organized labor leader.

The saying is also in the 1987 A Dictionary of Mexican American Proverbs. Almost all uses of the saying are connected to Mexican or Italian culture (including Mexican-Americans and Italian Americans).

One English example is The Fat and the Lean by William De Lisle in the University of Nebraska journal Prairie Schooner Vol. 12, No. 4 (WINTER 1938), pp. 235-246 (at page 242):

He knows every proverb there is ... even, 'Old hen makes good broth'

DavePhD
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    We do not know that for sure. It is entirely possible that in agricultural states, there are entire swathes of agricultural speech lost to us. I advise caution. – Lambie Mar 20 '17 at 18:12
  • This is very interesting. So the proverb is not also a Latin American one. –  Mar 20 '17 at 19:11
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    @Josh I found a 1938 American English usage that I will add – DavePhD Mar 20 '17 at 19:14
  • @Josh And a completely literal use from 19 November 1904 in the Australasian newspaper column "Poultry Notes": "Old hens make rare good broth, and such should be utilised in that way" http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/140775103?searchTerm=%22hen%20makes%20good%20broth%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase=hen+makes+good+broth|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom|||dateTo|||sortby – DavePhD Mar 20 '17 at 19:31
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    México is part of Latin America, but outside of that country it's not common in the western hemisphere outside of Italo-Americans and, of course Mexican Americans. – Arm the good guys in America Mar 21 '17 at 00:22
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    Wolfgang Mieder, A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992) has two somewhat similar-looking proverbs, both recorded in Ontario: "Fat hens make rich soup" and "An old hen never grows young." But the implications of these sayings are quite different from the implications of "An old hen makes good broth" (which Mieder does not record). – Sven Yargs Mar 21 '17 at 06:48