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Bouillon— No. 3

A slow‑cooked beef broth with vegetables and spices, strained and served in cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove 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— No. 3

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef and cold water.

  2. Simmer slowly for 6 hours.

  3. After 3 hours, add salt, black pepper, allspice, onions, carrot, celery, tomatoes, and cloves.

  4. Continue to boil slowly for another 3 hours.

  5. Strain the broth and set it aside.

Finish and serve

  1. The next day, remove the fat from the surface.

  2. Reheat the broth and add nutmeg and mace just before serving.

  3. Serve in bouillon cups.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water during long, slow simmering.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften and release their flavour into the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic background flavour to the broth during simmering.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savoury depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the surface. Fat that cools and solidifies on top of the broth must be removed, since it would otherwise make the bouillon greasy and heavy on the palate once reheated.

Swap the onion

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

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

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