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Bouillon

A clear meat broth made by simmering water, meat, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Bouillon

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine water and meat.

  2. Add onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Finish

  1. Strain the broth to remove solids.

  2. Serve warm or cool and store for later use.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat with bones
Releases gelatin, collagen and flavour into the water during long simmering.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for 2-3 hours. A rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and can emulsify fat into it. Keeping it at a gentle simmer gives a clearer, cleaner-tasting result while collagen slowly dissolves from the bones.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, 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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