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Beef Broth

A clear broth made by simmering beef leg, trimmings, and vegetables for several hours.

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 the meat

  1. Wash the beef leg or shin thoroughly.

  2. Ask the butcher to crack the bone in two or three places.

Make the broth

  1. Add the beef and any trimmings to a pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Stir well and skim off any scum as it begins to simmer.

  3. Add more cold water to help the remaining scum rise and skim again.

  4. Once the broth is clear, 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 clean container and cool it in the coldest place available.

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 leg or shin
Releases collagen and flavour into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body and savoury depth.
Beef trimmings
Add extra bone and connective tissue, enriching the broth with gelatin and meaty flavour.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering liquid.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and a mild aromatic background to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Skimming it as it forms keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting; if it is left to boil back in, the broth turns cloudy and can taste muddy.

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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