Why it works: Carrot and turnip 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 ↓
Pot- Au- Feu
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the beef
Add the beef and 2 quarts of water to a large pot.
Cook slowly until the beef is tender and the water reduces to 1 quart.
Prepare the vegetables
In another pot, bring water to a boil and add the vegetables (except the potatoes). Cook for 10 minutes, then discard the water.
Cover the vegetables with 1 quart of cold water.
Add the potatoes, pepper, and salt to the vegetables. Cook gently for 30 minutes.
Combine and serve
Add the cooked beef and the reserved gravy to the vegetable mixture. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes with the minced herbs.
Serve hot.
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.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 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
- Lean beef
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow cooking and flavours the broth.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they soften.
- Turnips
- Contribute a mild, slightly sweet flavour and soft texture to the vegetables.
- Potatoes
- Thicken the broth slightly as their starch softens during gentle cooking.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth and aroma once sliced and fried.
The step that matters
Cook the beef slowly. Gentle, low-heat simmering lets connective tissue in the beef break down into gelatin, making it tender. A hard boil tightens the muscle fibres and leaves the meat tough and dry.
Swap the turnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, potato, pepper):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, potato, pepper. 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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