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Bouillon

A clear meat broth made by simmering lean meat and vegetables in water.

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

Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the meat in an earthen pot and add cold water to the pot.

  2. Simmer and remove scum for 45 minutes.

Simmer

  1. Add the vegetables, salt, pepper, and spice.

  2. Cover the pot and simmer for 6 more hours, adding hot water as needed.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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 meat
Releases protein and savory flavor into the water as it simmers, forming the body of the broth.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth during the long simmer.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the broth as it softens.
Parsnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly peppery earthiness to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove the scum during the first simmer. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities rising from the meat. Leaving it in makes the broth cloudy and can add a muddy, off flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, parsnip, turnip, celery, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, parsnip, turnip, celery, 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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