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Beef Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, bones, and vegetables in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the crushed bones in a pot.

  2. Wipe the meat, cut it into small pieces, and remove all fat.

  3. Lay the meat on top of the bones, pour in the cold water, and add the salt.

Make the broth

  1. Heat slowly until it comes to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. If boiling too fast, add a small cup of cold water to reduce the boil.

  3. After skimming, add the herbs and sliced vegetables.

  4. Simmer slowly for 3 to 4 hours, removing vegetables and herbs before they disintegrate.

  5. Strain the broth into a clean vessel and refrigerate to remove the fat.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, heat the bouillon and serve in cups.

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. Celery + carrottop 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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh beef
Supplies the meat flavour and gelatin-rich body that the broth is built on.
Bones
Release collagen and minerals during long simmering, adding body and depth to the broth.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury aroma as it simmers into the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as it comes to a boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, while letting it boil hard would emulsify it into cloudiness.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, celery, carrot, 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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