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Delmonico Bouillon

A beef broth made by simmering beef, water, vegetables, herbs, spices, and egg whites, then strained and skimmed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Delmonico Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine beef and water in a large pot and let the mixture sit overnight.

  2. Simmer the mixture slowly until the strength is extracted.

  3. Add onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, celery, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, salt, and mace.

  4. Once reduced, strain the broth.

Clarify and strain

  1. Let the strained broth sit overnight.

  2. Remove the layer of fat from the top.

  3. Mix in the beaten egg whites and boil quickly for a moment.

  4. Remove from heat and skim carefully.

  5. Strain through a jelly bag.

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.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 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

Beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savory depth.
Egg whites
Collect suspended particles as they cook, clarifying the broth into a clear liquid.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil quickly after adding the egg whites. Egg whites must be brought to a boil so they coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Boiling too gently or stirring too hard can leave the broth murky or break the raft apart.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, celery, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, celery, clove. 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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