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Broth

A clear beef, veal, and fowl broth simmered with celery, carrots, leeks, turnips, onions, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 ↓

Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the beef, veal, and fowl in a stockpot and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil slowly.

  3. Skim off the scum for a clear broth.

Simmer

  1. Add the celery, carrots, leeks, turnips, and onions.

  2. Move the pot to the side of the fire.

  3. Simmer gently for 4 hours.

  4. Skim off the fat.

Finish

  1. Add salt 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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin that gives the broth body as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Releases collagen and gelatin, adding body and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Fowl
Adds savory poultry flavor and additional gelatin to the simmering liquid.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil slowly, then skim the scum. Rapid boiling churns impurities and fat into the liquid, leaving it cloudy. Heating gently and skimming the scum that rises keeps the broth clear.

Swap the clove

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

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

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