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Boiled Beef

A pot of boiled beef with vegetables and seasoning served with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Boiled Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone and tie the rump of beef together neatly.

  2. Place it in a pot with any odd bits of butcher's meat and bones.

Boil

  1. Fill the pot with water, not quite full, and place it on a moderate fire.

  2. Skim the surface gently as it boils.

  3. After a short time, add salt, turnips, carrots, onions, and leeks.

  4. Let it boil gently until the beef is perfectly done.

Serve

  1. Remove the beef and serve with fresh parsley, sauce, or vegetables.

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

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

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Rump of beef
Provides the main body of meat, which becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Bones
Add flavour and body to the broth as they simmer with the meat.
Turnips
Absorb flavour from the broth and add mild sweetness to the dish.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aroma to the broth and vegetables.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Leeks
Add a mild, sweet onion flavour that softens during gentle boiling.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface as it boils. Foam and scum rising from the meat and bones can cloud the broth and give it an off flavour. Skimming gently keeps the liquid clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

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

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

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