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Pot Au Feu

A French boiled beef stew with vegetables and aromatics, served as clear soup and then with the meat and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot Au Feu

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Combine cold water and rump beef with any leftover poultry or cooked meat in a soup pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Simmer

  1. Reduce heat to simmer gently, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Add carrots, turnips, leeks or small onions, celery, and cloves to the pot.

  3. Simmer until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the meat and vegetables from the pot.

  2. Serve the clear soup first.

  3. Serve the meat and vegetables plain or dressed with sauce.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Rump beef
Becomes tender through long simmering and gives the broth its rich meaty flavor.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and soften into the broth during simmering.
Celery
Adds savory aroma and vegetal depth to the simmering broth.
Leeks or small onions
Release sweetness and aroma into the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Scum rising from the meat contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Skimming it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, which matters because the clear soup is served first.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, carrot, turnip, leek, 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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