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Soup

Beef Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, bones, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Brown the beef pieces slightly with the sautéed onion in butter.

  2. Add the bones and cold water, then simmer for three hours.

  3. Add the diced carrots, celery, and turnips, and simmer for one more hour.

  4. Strain the broth and let it cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooled, add salt, parsley, sherry, and sugar.

  2. Serve hot.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meaty flavor and gelatin-rich body as it simmers into the broth.
Bones
Release collagen and minerals during long simmering, adding body and savory depth to the broth.
Onion
Sautéing builds sweet, savory aromatic flavor that carries into the finished broth.
Carrots, celery, and turnips
Add mild sweetness and aromatic vegetable flavor to the broth during the final hour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and strain after cooling. Boiling vigorously can cloud the broth and emulsify fat into it. Gentle simmering keeps the liquid clear, and chilling lets fat solidify on top so it can be removed before serving.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, carrot, celery, turnip, parsley, sherry):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, carrot, celery, turnip, parsley, sherry. 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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