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Bouillon— Mrs. L. A. Lancel

A clear beef stock made by simmering beef, vegetables, and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Bouillon— Mrs. L. A. Lancel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cover the beef with cold water and add salt.

  2. Boil and skim the surface.

  3. Add black pepper, carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, and parsley.

  4. Boil for 4 to 5 hours.

  5. Strain and set aside.

Finish the stock

  1. Roast the onion dry in the oven.

  2. Stick whole cloves in the onion.

  3. Add the onion to the stock.

  4. Boil for 10 minutes.

  5. If desired, add sherry 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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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

Beef
Gives the stock its meaty flavour and body as it simmers and releases gelatin.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock during the long simmer.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, savoury onion-like flavour to the broth.
Onion
Roasting before adding deepens its colour and gives the stock a toasted, savoury note.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after the first boil. Proteins and fat rise to the surface as the water heats. Removing them early keeps the stock clear and prevents a greasy or cloudy result.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, parsley. 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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