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Soup. Bouillon.

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef shoulder with water, salt, pepper, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Soup. Bouillon.

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the beef

  1. Place the beef in a pot.

  2. Cover with water, adding 2 quarts more.

  3. Boil slowly until the beef is tender.

Clarify the broth

  1. Remove from heat and let cool.

  2. Skim off the fat.

  3. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Strain into a soup kettle.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the celery or cut pieces.

  3. Serve.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin during slow cooking, giving the broth body and richness.
Celery
Releases aromatic compounds into the liquid, adding a fresh, savory background flavor.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until the beef is tender. A hard boil agitates the liquid, emulsifying fat into it and making the broth cloudy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear and lets collagen convert to gelatin without toughening the meat.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Rosemaryfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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