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Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering ground beef, vegetables, and seasonings, then strained and finished with egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Bouillon

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Wipe the beef with a damp cloth, trim off the fat, and grind the lean meat using a meat chopper.

  2. Place the ground beef in a soup kettle, cover with cold water, and let it sit for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Simmer the stock

  1. Heat the mixture slowly to a simmer, skimming frequently, and simmer covered for 4 hours.

  2. Add onion, carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns, and cloves; simmer for 1 hour longer.

  3. Strain the soup into a bowl and cool it overnight.

Clarify and finish

  1. Remove the fat from the surface, then add salt, cayenne, lemon peel, celery seed, and the whipped egg white.

  2. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly until it boils, then boil without stirring for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it rest for 10 minutes, then strain through doubled cheesecloth without squeezing.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty flavor and body of the broth as it simmers.
Egg white
Collects fine particles as it sets, helping clarify the broth into a clear liquid.
Onion
Adds savory, aromatic sweetness that builds the flavor base of the broth.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and aroma to the simmering broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory depth to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring after adding the egg white. Stirring while the egg white sets breaks up the clarifying raft, so particles stay in the broth and it turns cloudy; the raft should be left undisturbed and then strained gently without squeezing, which would push cloudy solids through the cheesecloth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, celery, parsley, clove, pepper, lemon. 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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