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Beef Broth

A clear beef broth flavored with mace, parsley, and crusted bread, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Beef Broth

Why it works: Beef and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,032 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Beef Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Wash the leg of beef clean and place it in a large pot with 1 gallon of water.

  2. Skim the surface well, then add the mace, parsley, and crust of bread.

  3. Boil until the beef and sinews are tender.

Serve

  1. Cut some toasted bread and place it in a tureen.

  2. Lay the meat on top of the bread and pour the broth over it.

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. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  4. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

  5. Mace + breadtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef leg
Provides the meat and sinews that give the broth its body and flavor as they cook.
Water
Acts as the cooking liquid that slowly draws flavor and gelatin out of the beef.
Mace
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the broth.
Parsley
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the surface well. Foam and impurities that rise early in the pot would cloud the broth and give it a scum-like taste if left in, so removing them keeps the liquid clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, bread):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, bread. 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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