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Pot-au-feu

A French boiled beef stew with vegetables, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Combine the meat, water, and a little salt in a large pot.

  2. Place the pot on moderate heat and remove the scum as it rises, just before boiling.

  3. Cook the meat for 2 hours.

  4. Add the vegetables.

  5. Let the mixture boil slowly for 3 to 4 more hours, for a total of 5 to 6 hours of cooking.

  6. If you want soup, start with cold water.

  7. For boiled meat, add a tender piece when the water is boiling.

Finish

  1. Skim off any fat before serving, as it can be used for other cooking purposes.

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. Parsnip + leektop 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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the flavour and body of the broth as it cooks slowly over hours.
Vegetables
Add sweetness and aromatic flavour to the broth as they soften during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Removing the scum before boiling. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it as it forms keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Letting the pot boil too early can cloud the broth and mix the scum back in.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, turnip, carrot, parsnip, leek. 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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