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Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef leg in water with salt and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Bouillon

Why it works: Beef and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,533 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the beef leg into 4 or 5 pieces and wash them in cold water.

  2. Place the meat in a soup kettle and cover with cold water.

Simmer

  1. Skim the surface as the water heats until it begins to boil.

  2. Cover the kettle and simmer on low heat for 5 hours.

  3. If the water level drops, replenish with boiling water.

Strain and season

  1. Remove the meat and bones with a skimmer.

  2. Skim off the fat, season with salt, and strain through a fine sieve.

  3. Add grated nutmeg before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Beef + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,495 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Meat + nutmegtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,656 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef leg
Provides the meat and bones that release flavor and body into the broth during long simmering.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic note to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface as the water heats. Impurities and coagulated proteins rise to the surface as the water warms. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and prevents off-flavors from mixing back in during the long simmer.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat):

  1. Pepperfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat. 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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