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A Simple Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, vegetables, and seasonings, finished with egg white and shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

A Simple Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Melt the butter in a granite saucepan.

  2. Add the onion and cook until brown.

  3. Add the beef, vegetables, and cold water.

  4. Set on the back of the stove to heat slowly and let simmer gently for three hours.

  5. Bring to a boil.

Clarify and strain

  1. Beat the egg white with ½ cup cold water, add the crushed shell, and pour into the boiling bouillon.

  2. Boil for four minutes, then let stand for one minute to settle.

  3. Strain through wet cheesecloth.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  4. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savor.
Egg white and shell
Coagulates as it heats, trapping cloudy particles so the broth clears.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma when browned in the butter.
Butter
Carries fat that softens and coats the onion, adding richness.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil before clarifying. The egg white must be added to a boiling broth so it cooks and coagulates quickly, trapping cloudy particles. Adding it to cool liquid can leave the broth murky.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, onion, celery, carrot, parsley, egg. 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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