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Gilt-edged Bouillon

A beef broth made with allspice, tomatoes, celery seed, and optional garlic and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gilt-edged Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put all ingredients into a soup kettle.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer steadily without letting it stop boiling.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main flavour and rich body to the broth as it simmers.
Fresh or canned tomatoes
Adds acidity and a mild tang that brightens the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering steadily. If the broth is allowed to stop boiling or is kept at a rolling boil, the liquid can cloud and the meat can toughen. A steady, gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and the beef tender.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, allspice, tomato, garlic, pepper, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, allspice, tomato, garlic, pepper, 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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