Skip to main content
Soup

Bouillon Alsacienne

A hearty broth made with beef, ham, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Leek and cabbage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Bouillon Alsacienne

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare a broth using beef and ham.

  2. Garnish with diced potatoes, julienned leeks, and cabbage.

  3. Add slices of bread 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 + cabbagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Potato + leektop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Potato + cabbagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 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
Gives the broth its deep, savory meaty flavor.
Ham
Adds smoky, salty depth to the broth.
Potatoes
Add starchy body and soak up the broth's flavor.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, sweet onion-like aroma.
Cabbage
Adds texture and a gentle sweetness when cooked.
Bread
Soaks up broth, adding softness and body to each serving.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, potato, leek, 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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesCream of Potato SoupCream of Potato Soup38 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes