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Beef Broth

A clear beef broth made by simmering a leg or shin with trimmings, vegetables, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef Broth

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crack the bone of the beef in two or three places.

  2. Cover the beef and trimmings with cold water in a pot.

Simmer and skim

  1. Put the pot over the fire and stir well from the bottom.

  2. When it begins to simmer, skim the broth until clear.

  3. Add more water to make remaining scum rise and continue skimming.

  4. Once the surface is clean, add the carrot, celery, turnips, and onions.

  5. Cover the pot and let it simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain the broth through a sieve into a dry container and cool to settle.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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 flavor and gelatin from the bone and meat into the broth during long simmering.
Beef trimmings
Add extra meat and bone flavor and body to the broth.
Onions
Contribute savory sweetness and aroma as they cook in the broth.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Celery
Adds savory, herbal aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it while the broth is simmering keeps the final broth clear and clean-tasting. Skimming should happen before the vegetables are added, once the surface is clean.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, carrot, celery, 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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