Why it works: Meat and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Pot-au-Feu
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Simmer the calf's foot, savory herbs, and salt in water for 5 to 6 hours.
Add the soaked and cleaned ham to the pot when first adding water, and boil for 3.5 to 4 hours.
Finish and serve
Pour the broth over fresh meat instead of water to make a consomme or strong jellied stock.
For a richer flavor, add additional beef and some glaze to create an amber-colored gravy-soup.
Truss and stew poultry, pigeons, or game in the broth until tender, then serve with a good sauce.
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.
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Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,095 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,264 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + vealtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,890 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
- Calf's foot
- Adds gelatin, so the broth sets into a strong jellied stock when cooled.
- Fresh meat
- Releases flavor and body into the broth as it cooks slowly.
- Ham
- Lends savory, salty depth to the broth during its long boil.
The step that matters
Long, gentle simmer of the calf's foot. A slow simmer over several hours lets collagen in the calf's foot break down into gelatin. A hard boil can cloud the broth and toughen the meat, so keep it at a bare simmer.
“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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