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Bouilli Beef

A boiled beef stew with carrots, turnips, onion, wine, mustard, soy sauce, thickened with flour and garnished with pickled cucumbers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bouilli Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Place the brisket in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Add the diced carrots, turnips, and onion, along with the studded onion.

  4. Simmer for 3 hours.

  5. Stir in the red wine, mixed mustard, and soy sauce.

  6. Simmer for an additional hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with a little flour.

  2. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  3. Pour the gravy over the meat.

  4. Sprinkle finely chopped pickled cucumbers over the meat.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brisket of beef
Main meat that becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the braising liquid and gravy.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they soften.
Turnips
Add mild earthy flavor and body to the braising liquid as they soften.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming the boiling liquid. Skimming scum as the water first comes to a boil removes coagulated proteins and impurities, keeping the broth and gravy clean-tasting and clear.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, onion, red wine, mustard, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, red wine, mustard, sauce. 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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