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Grand Bouillon

A rich beef and poultry broth made with bones, vegetables, herbs, and seasonings, simmered slowly for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Grand Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Combine the beef and scraps of butcher's meat in a large pot.

  2. Add the carcasses, feet, and necks of poultry and game.

  3. Season with turnips, carrots, onions, garlic, cloves, pot-herbs, and salt.

  4. Fill the pot with water, leaving some space at the top, and place it over a slow fire.

Simmer and clarify

  1. Skim the surface gently and refill with cold water until the broth is clear.

  2. Let it cook gently for several hours.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the broth through a hot, damp napkin and cool it for later use.

  2. When using for stews, add wine, ketchup, or soy to taste.

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. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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

Beef
Gives the broth its core meaty flavour as it simmers slowly for hours.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they cook down.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the finished broth.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly sweet vegetable note to the broth.
Carcasses, feet, and necks of poultry and game
Release gelatine and savoury flavour, giving the broth body and richness.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface. Gentle skimming removes foam and fat that would otherwise cloud the broth and make it greasy. Keeping the liquid at a slow simmer, not a boil, also helps it stay clear.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, veal, mutton, turnip, carrot, onion):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, veal, mutton, turnip, carrot, 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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