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Julienne, or Vegetable Broth

A simple broth made by stewing vegetables in butter and stock, finished with soaked bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Julienne, or Vegetable Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the vegetables

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the chopped vegetables on top of the butter.

  3. Stew or fry the vegetables over low heat, stirring occasionally.

  4. Add a little stock as needed while cooking.

Finish the broth

  1. Soak the bread crusts in the remaining stock.

  2. When the vegetables are nearly cooked, add the soaked bread and warm everything together.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Butter
Fat that softens the vegetables and carries flavor during gentle cooking.
Vegetables
Provide the main flavor and body of the broth as they cook down.
Stock or broth
Supplies liquid that keeps the vegetables moist and helps them cook without browning.
Crusty bread
Soaks up liquid and thickens the broth slightly as it warms together.

The step that matters

Stewing the vegetables over low heat. Gentle heat softens the vegetables and draws out their flavor without browning or scorching them. Adding stock as needed prevents sticking and keeps the mixture moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, celery, carrot, turnip, bread):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, celery, carrot, turnip, bread. 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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