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Pot-au-feu

A traditional French beef stew made by simmering beef and vegetables in a seasoned broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with cold water, salt, and pepper.

  2. Set the pot over low heat.

  3. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

  4. Add the onions, parsnip, carrot, turnips, celery, leeks, parsley, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, and caramel.

  5. Simmer for 5 to 6 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat and vegetables.

  2. Serve them warm after the soup or save for the next day.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Skim off the fat.

  5. Bring the broth back to a boil.

  6. Serve the broth over croutons in a soup dish.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsnip + carrottop 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

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and tender texture as it slowly simmers in the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they cook down.
Leeks
Contribute mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and color to the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body as they soften during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam. Foam that rises early contains proteins and impurities; removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, clove, parsnip, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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