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Bouillon

A beef broth made by simmering beef, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, allspice, cloves, and red pepper pod in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Bouillon

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large kettle.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.

  3. Add the minced onion, carrot, thyme, parsley, and celery, and cook for an additional 2 hours.

  4. During the last hour, leave the cover partially off to allow evaporation.

Strain and clarify

  1. If desired, strain the soup through a fine sieve.

  2. Let the broth cool overnight and remove any fat in the morning.

  3. Pour off the jelly carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment.

Serve

  1. Season to taste 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the broth its body and meaty taste.
Cold water
Serves as the cooking liquid that extracts flavour slowly from the beef and vegetables.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savoury depth to the broth.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavour as it cooks down into the broth.
Carrot
Contributes subtle sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, herbal savoury flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer gentle and skim the fat. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and emulsifies fat into it, while gentle simmering keeps it clear. Chilling overnight lets the fat solidify on top so it can be removed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, beef, clove, allspice, pepper, carrot, thyme):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beef, clove, allspice, pepper, carrot, thyme. 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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