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Beef and Hen Broth

A clear broth made from beef, hen, salt, water, and finely chopped 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.

  3. Stir over heat until boiling.

Simmer and serve

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

  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. 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
Releases meat flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savouriness.
Hen
Adds further meat flavour and richness to the broth as it cooks.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the liquid.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Add the chopped vegetables and boil for 30 minutes. Boiling hard for the full time can emulsify fat into the liquid and make the broth cloudy and greasy. Keeping the liquid at a steady, gentle boil helps it stay clearer and better flavoured.

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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