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Bouillon— Beef

A hearty beef stock made with beef, veal, chicken, vegetables, and seasonings, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Bouillon— Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the beef, veal, and chicken in a soup kettle.

  2. Add 6 quarts of cold water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a slow boil.

  4. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  5. Add more water to maintain 6 quarts as the water boils away.

  6. Boil for 3 to 4 hours until the meat is very tender.

  7. Remove from heat.

  8. Cool overnight.

Finish the broth

  1. Carefully remove the fat from the stock.

  2. Take out the meat.

  3. Slice the celery, carrots, turnip, and roasted onion thinly.

  4. Add the vegetables to the stock.

  5. Boil for 1 hour.

  6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Releases gelatin and flavour into the stock as it simmers, giving body and savour.
Breast of veal
Adds gelatin-rich connective tissue that gives the broth a fuller, silkier body.
Chicken
Contributes savoury flavour and additional gelatin to the stock during the long simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aroma to the finished broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities released as the stock heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and prevents a muddy, off flavour.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, chicken, celery, carrot, onion, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, chicken, celery, carrot, onion, pepper. 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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