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Pot-au-feu

A classic French beef stew simmered with vegetables and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine beef and enough water to cover it.

  2. Add coarse sea salt to taste.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.

  4. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

Finish and serve

  1. Add chopped vegetables in the last hour of cooking.

  2. Serve hot, ensuring to include both broth and meat.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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
Provides the meat for the dish and flavours the broth as it simmers.
Vegetables
Carrots, onions and leeks add sweetness and aroma to the broth and make the dish a complete meal.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam. Foam rising during the first boil contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, leek. 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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