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Broth Without Meat

A clear broth made by simmering vegetables, herbs, and seasonings in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Broth Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the vegetables and onion.

  2. Fry them in dripping or butter.

  3. Add seasoning and salt.

Make the broth

  1. Pour in water and stew, skimming regularly.

  2. Add a little vermicelli or rice.

  3. In another pot, boil 1 quart of water with sorrel, chervil, and cut lettuces.

  4. Add any other approved sweet herbs and salt.

  5. Simmer covered for a short time, then strain.

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. Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chervil + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together396 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sorrel + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + sorreltop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together459 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

Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the fat.
Lettuces
Contribute gentle vegetable flavour and body to the broth.
Vermicelli or rice (in the method)
Thickens the broth slightly and adds body as it cooks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sorrel, chervil, lettuce):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sorrel, chervil, lettuce. 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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