Skip to main content
Main

Pot-au-feu

A traditional French beef stew with beef, vegetables, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Combine the beef and water in a large pot.

  2. Place the pot near the fire and skim off any foam.

Simmer

  1. When the water is nearly boiling, add the salt, liver, carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, onions (with a clove in each), and parsnip.

  2. Skim again and let simmer for 4 to 5 hours, adding a little cold water as needed.

  3. Remove some of the fat from the surface.

Serve

  1. Place slices of bread in a tureen, add half the vegetables and half the broth, and serve the meat separately with the remaining vegetables.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
Gives the long-simmered broth its rich meaty flavour and body.
Liver
Adds depth and a savoury, mineral note to the broth.
Leeks
Contribute mild onion-like sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Onions
Release sugars and aroma during the long simmer, sweetening the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour to the broth and the vegetables served with the meat.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam and impurities rise as the water heats. Skimming them early and again after adding vegetables keeps the broth clear and free of bitter or off flavours.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, liver, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, parsnip):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, liver, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, parsnip. 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.

More pot-au-feu recipes

Russian 5French 4 See all 133 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes