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Beef Broth

A clear broth made by simmering beef leg or shin with trimmings and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef Broth

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the beef leg or shin thoroughly and ask the butcher to crack the bone in two or three places.

  2. Add the meat trimmings and cover with cold water.

Simmer and skim

  1. Stir well and skim the surface as it begins to simmer until clear.

  2. Add more cold water to help remove any remaining scum and skim again.

  3. Once clear, add the carrot, celery, turnips, and onions.

  4. Cover and let simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours, depending on the meat's weight.

Strain and cool

  1. Strain through a sieve into a clean, dry container and cool in the coldest place available.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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 leg or shin
Provides flavour and gelatin from the bone and connective tissue for body in the broth.
Meat trimmings
Add extra meaty flavour and richness to the broth.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth.
Carrot
Adds mild sweetness and a rounded background flavour.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savoury background flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface as it simmers. Scum made of coagulated proteins and fat rises as the liquid heats. Skimming it removes cloudiness and off flavours, so the broth stays clear. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer, since a hard boil breaks the scum up and mixes it back in.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, carrot, celery, turnip. 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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