Name: Broth Made Quickly
Ingredients: 1 pound beef, cut into small pieces; ½ pint cold water; 1 piece carrot; 1 onion; ¼ pound bacon, cut into small pieces; 1 pint boiling water; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broth Made Quickly

Ingredients

Directions

In a stewpan, combine beef, cold water, carrot, onion, and bacon.
Set on the fire and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add boiling water, salt, and pepper.
Boil for 45 minutes, then strain the broth.

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.

Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef: Releases flavour and gelatin into the liquid as it simmers, giving the broth body.
Bacon: Adds fat and smoky savoury flavour to the broth.
Onion: Contributes sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks down.
Carrot: Adds mild sweetness and aromatic background to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boil hard at the start. Starting with cold water and simmering slowly lets proteins and fats release gradually, producing a clearer broth. A hard rolling boil emulsifies fat and clouds the liquid.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Potatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, pepper. 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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Broth Made Quickly