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Beef Broth

A slow‑cooked beef broth with carrots, turnips, leek, celery, parsley, bay leaf, and burnt onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Beef Broth

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 ↓

Beef Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the beef in a large pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Set the pot over medium heat and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

Simmer

  1. Once the scum is removed, add the carrots, turnips, leek, celery, parsley, bay leaf, and burnt onion.

  2. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for at least 6 hours.

  3. Ensure the broth cooks slowly without interruption.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water during long, slow simmering, giving the broth body.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aromatic flavour to the broth as they cook.
Leek
Adds a mild, savoury onion-like aroma to the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour to the broth.
Burnt onion
Adds deep colour and a roasted, smoky aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it before adding vegetables keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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