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Pot-au-feu

A French boiled beef stew with liver, vegetables, and coarse sea salt, served in clear broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Wipe the beef clean and place it in a soup kettle with 4 quarts of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil slowly, skimming off any foam.

  3. Add the salt and liver, then simmer for 2 hours, adding 1 cup of cold water every half hour.

  4. Once boiling, skim carefully.

  5. After 2 hours, add the clove and vegetables, and simmer for an additional 2 hours.

  6. Skim off all the fat, then serve the clear soup in a tureen.

Serve

  1. Arrange the meat in the center of a large platter and slice the vegetables to garnish around it.

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. 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. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 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

Beef
Provides the main meat and rich flavor as its juices and collagen enrich the broth.
Liver
Adds deep, savory flavor to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam and fat. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the broth heats and simmers. Removing them early and often keeps the soup clear and free of greasy, off-tasting residue.

Swap the clove

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

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

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