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Pot-au-feu

Pot-au-feu is a French stew made with second quality meat, water, salt, and vegetables.

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

  1. In a large pot, combine the meat, water, and a little salt.

  2. Place the pot over moderate heat and remove any scum that rises before it boils.

Simmer

  1. After cooking the meat for 2 hours, add the vegetables.

  2. Continue to simmer the pot for 3 to 4 more hours, for a total of 5 to 6 hours of cooking.

  3. If you want soup, start with cold water; for boiled meat, add a tender piece when the water is boiling.

Finish

  1. Skim off any fat before serving, and save it for other cooking uses.

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

Second quality meat
Provides the main flavour and, as it simmers slowly, becomes tender while releasing savoury juices into the broth.
Vegetables
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook slowly in the liquid.

The step that matters

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

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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