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Soup

Grand Bouillon

A hearty beef and veal stock simmered with leeks, carrots, and onions for five hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Grand Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the bones from the beef and veal shanks.

  2. Tie the meat securely.

  3. Place the meat in a large pot.

Simmer the stock

  1. Add 3 liters of water and 9 grams of coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Add leeks, carrots, and onions.

  5. Cook for 5 hours.

  6. Strain through a cloth into a bowl.

  7. Reserve the stock for use.

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. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 shank
Gives the stock its body and meaty flavour as it cooks slowly.
Veal shank
Adds gelatin from the bones and bones, giving the stock a fuller mouthfeel.
Leeks
Contribute sweet, mild aromatic flavour to the stock during the long simmer.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the stock as they simmer.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam. Foam contains coagulated proteins and impurities that can cloud the stock and taint its flavour. Removing it early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting through the long simmer.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, leek, onion):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, leek, 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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