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Beef Broth

A simple beef broth made by simmering a beef leg with water, mace, parsley, and 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

Prepare

  1. Crack the bone of the beef leg into two or three parts and wash it clean.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with 1 gallon of water and skim the surface.

  3. Add 2-3 blades of mace, a bundle of parsley, and a crust of bread.

Cook the broth

  1. Boil until the beef is tender and the sinews are soft.

Serve

  1. Toast additional bread and cut it into dice.

  2. Place the diced bread in a tureen, add the meat, and pour in the broth.

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
Bone and connective tissue release flavour and body into the broth as they simmer.
Water
Acts as the cooking liquid that extracts flavour and gelatin from the beef.
Bread crust
Adds a little starch and body to the broth while it simmers.
Parsley
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma to the broth.
Mace
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the surface. Proteins and fat rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Skimming them off keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

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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