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Pot-au-feu De Famille

A traditional French beef stew with brisket, bones, liver, vegetables, and herbs simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot-au-feu De Famille

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and prepare the poultry trimmings.

  2. Peel and wash the vegetables.

  3. Make a bouquet with the pea pods, leeks, parsnip, celery, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, garlic, and onion.

Simmer

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef, bones, liver, water, salt, and the bouquet of vegetables.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours until the meat is tender.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 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 brisket
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful during long, slow simmering.
Beef bones
Release gelatin and savory flavour into the broth as they simmer.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and aroma to the broth and the finished dish.
Beef liver
Adds richness and depth of flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after the boil. Once the pot reaches a boil, lowering the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and prevents the meat from toughening. Vigorous boiling emulsifies fats and clouds the liquid, while slow, steady heat lets connective tissue break down into tender meat.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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