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French Pot Au Feu

A traditional French beef stew with vegetables simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 ↓

French Pot Au Feu

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine 1 gallon of water and 4 pounds of beef.

  2. Add 3 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, chopped onions, leeks, carrots, turnips, cloves, and burnt onion or coloring.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim off any scum, then reduce heat and simmer for 4 hours.

  4. If needed, add a little cold water to keep the broth clear.

  5. Serve the broth with sliced bread and some vegetables, and keep the meat separate.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, giving the meat tenderness and enriching the broth with flavor.
Onions
Release sweetness and savory depth into the broth as they cook for hours.
Leeks
Add a mild, sweet onion-like flavor that rounds out the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth and vegetables.

The step that matters

Skimming scum after the boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the broth heats. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, so skim before reducing the heat to a simmer.

Swap the clove

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

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

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