Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Bouillon Fait Dans Une Heure
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the beef or veal into small cubes and partially mince it with a cleaver.
Make the broth
Place the meat in a pot with the onion, carrot, bacon, and ½ cup of water.
Simmer for 15 minutes until it starts to stick to the pot.
Add 2 to 8 cups of boiling water and a little salt.
Boil for about 1 hour, strain through a sieve, and serve.
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.
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,606 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
- Beef or veal
- Releases gelatin and meat flavor into the liquid, giving the broth body and savoriness.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and smoky, savory depth to the broth.
- Onion
- Contributes sweetness and aromatic flavor as it cooks down.
- Carrot
- Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
The step that matters
Simmer until the meat starts to stick to the pot. Browning the meat and vegetables in the pot before adding liquid builds deeper flavor through the Maillard reaction. Letting the meat stick slightly without burning is the sign that flavor is developing, but scorching would make the broth bitter.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion):
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits about as well
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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