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Boiling Meat

A simple method for boiling a piece of meat with vegetables and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Boiling Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and tie the piece of meat with twine.

  2. Place the meat in a pot and cover it completely with water.

Cook

  1. Bring the water to a gentle simmer and remove any scum that rises.

  2. Add carrots, onions, celery, and sweet herbs according to the type of meat.

  3. Boil the meat for 15 to 20 minutes per pound, adding more boiling water if needed to keep it covered.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  5. Meat + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,880 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
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and flavourful as it cooks slowly in liquid.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the cooking liquid as they soften.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the meat fully covered and at a gentle simmer. Meat exposed above the liquid cooks unevenly and dries out at the surface. A gentle simmer, rather than a hard boil, keeps the proteins tender and the broth clear. Topping up with boiling water keeps the temperature steady.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, 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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