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Pot-au-feu

A traditional French stew of beef, vegetables, and herbs simmered in a seasoned broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip 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. Add 6 quarts of water to a large pot.

  2. Tie 4 pounds of beef or ox‑cheek meat into a shape with string and place it in the pot.

  3. Bring the water to a boil.

  4. Add ½ ounce of coarse sea salt to the boiling water.

  5. Reduce heat to a simmer.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash 2 carrots, 2 leeks, 2 turnips, 1 parsnip, and 1 small head of celery in cold water.

  2. Scrape the carrots and parsnip.

  3. Cut the scraped carrots and parsnip into quarters.

  4. Trim the leeks to use only the white part.

  5. Remove the green tops from the celery.

  6. Tie the leeks, celery, carrots, and parsnip together with string.

  7. Cut the cabbage in half.

  8. Wash the cabbage thoroughly.

  9. Tie the cabbage together with string.

Simmer

  1. Skim the pot occasionally.

  2. After simmering for 1 hour, add all the vegetables except the cabbage.

  3. Tie the bay leaf, parsley, thyme, and marjoram together with string.

  4. Add the tied herbs to the pot.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or ox-cheek meat
Provides the main flavor and rich, tender texture as it slowly simmers.
Leeks
Add sweet, mild onion-like flavor to the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and color to the broth.
Cabbage
Adds body and mild sweetness to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skim the pot occasionally. Foam and fat rising to the surface can cloud the broth and give it a greasy taste. Removing them keeps the broth clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, leek, turnip, parsnip, celery, parsley. 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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