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Quick Bouillon

A clear broth made with butter, beef, chicken, onion, celery, carrot, cloves, bay leaf, parsley, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Quick Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Melt one tablespoon of butter and add the sliced onion. Cook until the onion is thoroughly done.

  2. Add the 2 pounds of lean beef, the broken chicken bones, the celery stalk, the 4 cloves, the 2 slices of carrot, the 1 bay leaf, the 2 sprigs of parsley, and 2 pints of cold water.

  3. Cover the saucepan and set it on the back of the range where the water will slowly heat. Let it come to a boiling point, strain, return the liquid to the saucepan, and bring it to a boil again.

Clarify and strain

  1. Beat the white of one egg in one-half cup of water until thoroughly blended, crush the shell and add it to the egg and water, then add this mixture to the boiling bouillon.

  2. Boil for four minutes, let stand for a minute to settle, and strain through a cheesecloth wrung out of cold water.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

265Calories
9 gProtein
18 gFat
20 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Waternot in our table0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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 (in the method)
Adds meaty flavor and body to the broth as it simmers.
Egg white and shell
Coagulates as it heats, trapping cloudy particles so the broth clears.
Onion
Sweetens and deepens the broth's savory flavor when cooked in butter first.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Heating the broth slowly and not letting it boil hard before straining. Gentle heating lets proteins and fat release slowly, so the broth stays clearer. Vigorous boiling breaks up particles and makes the liquid cloudy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, parsley, celery, egg, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, parsley, celery, egg, onion. 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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