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Broth of Berf, Mutton, and Veal

A clear broth made from beef, veal, and mutton simmered with herbs, peppercorns, and optional onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Broth of Berf, Mutton, and Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine beef, veal, mutton, sweet herbs, and peppercorns in a large saucepan.

  2. Add 5 quarts of water and simmer until reduced to 3 quarts.

Skim and finish

  1. Let the broth cool, then remove the fat.

  2. If any fat remains, place a piece of clean blotting paper on the broth to absorb it.

  3. Add the onion if desired.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty flavor and gelatin-rich body to the broth.
Veal scrag
Adds gelatin from bones and connective tissue, giving the broth body.
Mutton scrag
Adds deeper meaty flavor and gelatin as it simmers slowly in the water.

The step that matters

Simmer until reduced to 3 quarts. Long, gentle simmering extracts flavor and gelatin from the meat and bones while concentrating the liquid. Boiling hard can cloud the broth and emulsify fat into it, so keep the heat low.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, mutton):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton. 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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