Name: Beef Broth
Ingredients: 1 pound good lean beef, cut into small pieces; 2 quarts cold water; ½ cup tapioca, soaked in water for 45 minutes; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 soft poached egg (optional); Parsley and onion (optional)

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Broth

Ingredients

1 pound good lean beef, cut into small pieces
2 quarts cold water
½ cup tapioca, soaked in water for 45 minutes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 soft poached egg (optional)
Parsley and onion (optional)

Directions

Make the broth

Combine the beef and cold water in a pot.
Cover and boil slowly for 1.5 hours.
Add the soaked tapioca and boil for an additional 30 minutes.
Optionally add parsley and onion with the tapioca.

Finish and serve

Strain the broth before serving and season with salt and pepper.
Stir in a soft poached egg just before serving, if desired.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 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

Beef: Releases flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savoury depth.
Tapioca: Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth slightly and giving it a lighter body.
Egg: Optional poached egg adds richness and softness when stirred into the hot broth.