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Beef Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, vegetables, and herbs for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and cauliflower work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 113 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-ethylphenol, which smells must. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with the water and heat slowly to a boil, then skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  2. Remove 1 pint of the broth and set aside for cooking the vegetables.

  3. Add 1 sliced carrot, 1 sliced turnip, the large onion, and the herbs to the remaining broth.

  4. Simmer slowly for 4 hours.

  5. Remove the beef and keep it warm over boiling water.

  6. Strain the soup, pressing the vegetables to extract flavor.

  7. Cool the broth, skim off the fat, and return it to the heat.

Finish and serve

  1. When hot, add noodles, boiled rice, or soaked German sago.

  2. Simmer for 5 minutes and serve in a tureen.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + cauliflowertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Peas + cauliflowertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Beans + peastop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together949 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + cauliflowertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together286 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Round beef
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and body as it simmers for hours.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook.
Turnips
Add mild, slightly sweet flavor to the broth.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum at the start. Scum that rises as the beef heats contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and free of off flavors.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, onion, beans, peas, cauliflower):

  1. Celerybetter flavor fit
  2. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, beans, peas, cauliflower. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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