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Pot Au Feu

A French boiled beef stew made with beef, root vegetables, herbs, and seasonings simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek 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 ↓

Pot Au Feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the beef and cold water in a large saucepan.

  2. Skim the surface carefully before the mixture begins to boil.

  3. Add the turnips, carrots, leek, parsnips, onions, parsley, celery, cloves, peppercorns, browning, and salt.

  4. Simmer very slowly for 5 to 6 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine sieve before serving.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Silver side of round beef
Provides the main meat and, while simmering, releases flavour and gelatin into the broth.
Turnips
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften during the long simmer.
Carrots
Contribute natural sugars that add sweetness and depth to the broth.
Onions
Build savoury depth and aroma as they cook slowly in the liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming before the boil. Removing foam and impurities as the liquid heats keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Simmering very slowly, rather than boiling, keeps the meat tender and the broth limpid.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, carrot, leek, parsnip, parsley, 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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