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Pot-au-feu

A hearty French beef stew with vegetables and bread.

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 ↓

Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the beef and water in a large pot, place it near the fire, and skim off any foam.

  2. Add the salt, liver, carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, onions, and parsnip.

  3. Skim again and let the soup simmer for 4 to 5 hours, adding a little cold water as needed.

  4. Remove some of the fat from the surface.

Serve

  1. Place slices of bread in a tureen, then add half of the vegetables and half of the broth.

  2. Serve the meat separately with the remaining vegetables.

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

Beef
Provides the rich meaty flavor that gives the broth its body.
Liver
Adds depth and a savory, earthy flavor to the broth.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Bread
Soaks up broth in the tureen, giving a soft, absorbent base for the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam and fat. Foam that forms early and fat left on the surface can cloud the broth and make it greasy. Skimming during the long simmer keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, liver, 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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