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Pot-au-feu

A traditional French beef stew made with lean beef, bone, giblets, vegetables, and simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek 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

Make the broth

  1. Place the beef, beef bone, and chicken giblets in an earthen pot.

  2. Add 1 gallon of water and set on a slow fire.

  3. When scum rises, remove it.

  4. Add ½ cup of cold water to help clear the broth.

  5. Once boiling and clear, add salt.

Simmer and season

  1. Add the vegetables.

  2. Simmer for 4 hours.

  3. Remove the fat.

  4. Season to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve with sliced toasted rolls.

  2. Garnish with a pinch of chervil before serving.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin during long simmering, giving the broth body and the meat tenderness.
Beef bone
Releases gelatin and marrow flavour into the broth during the long simmer, adding richness and body.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Onions
Release sweetness and savoury aroma as they cook slowly in the broth.
Leeks
Add a mild, sweet onion-like aroma that softens during simmering.
Cabbage
Adds mild sweetness and tender texture to the finished pot.

The step that matters

Keep the broth at a gentle simmer. Vigorous boiling churns fat and impurities into the liquid, clouding the broth. Skimming scum early and holding a slow simmer keeps it clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, chicken, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, onion. 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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