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Soup

Beef and Hen Broth

A clear broth made from beef and hen, seasoned with salt and simmered with carrots, onions, leeks, and celery.

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

Beef and Hen Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the beef and hen together in a mortar.

  2. Add the salt and water to a stewpan.

Make the broth

  1. Stir over heat until boiling.

  2. Add the chopped vegetables and boil for 30 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Lean beef
Adds meaty flavour and body to the broth.
Hen
Adds rich flavour and collagen that gives the broth body.
Carrots
Add mild sweetness and aroma as they simmer.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the broth.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, sweet, onion-like aroma.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Add the chopped vegetables and boil for 30 minutes.. Vigorous boiling breaks fat and solids into the liquid, making the broth cloudy. A gentle simmer keeps it clearer and gives a cleaner flavour.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, leek, celery. 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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