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Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef and vegetables for hours.

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

Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the beef in an earthen pot and add the cold water.

  2. Heat the pot by the fire until it begins to simmer, skimming off any scum that forms.

  3. After 45 minutes, add the chopped vegetables, salt, pepper, and spices, then cover the pot.

  4. Let it simmer for 6 hours, adding hot water as needed to replace evaporated liquid.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 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

Beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savoury depth.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and releases its flavour into the liquid.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and aroma to the simmering broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clearer and cleaner-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, parsnip, turnip, celery, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, parsnip, turnip, celery, pepper. 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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