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Beef with Broth

A beef broth made with barley, oatmeal, parsley, thyme, onions or leeks, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Beef with Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into pieces and place in a large pot.

  2. Add barley, oatmeal, parsley, thyme, and onions or leeks.

  3. Cover with water.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat.

  2. Simmer for several hours until the beef is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

  2. Strain the broth and serve.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Barley + thymetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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
Provides rich flavor and gelatin as it simmers, giving the broth body.
Barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a soft texture.
Oatmeal
Adds starch that helps thicken the broth and give it a fuller body.
Onions or leeks
Contribute sweetness and savory aroma to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the beef is tender. A rolling boil makes meat proteins tighten and the broth cloudy, while a gentle simmer lets collagen slowly break down into gelatin for tender meat and a fuller broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, barley, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, parsley, thyme, 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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