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Broth of Fragments

A clear broth made by simmering meat, game, and poultry trimmings with vegetables and spices for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Broth of Fragments

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the trimmings and parings well.

  2. Place them in a stewpan and cover with cold water.

Simmer

  1. Set the stewpan on a hot fire and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any scum that forms on the surface.

  3. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours.

  4. Add the carrots, turnips, onion, mace, and celery.

  5. Strain the broth through a sieve into a clean basin.

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. 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

Trimmings and parings of meat, game, and poultry
Release gelatin, collagen and flavour into the water as they simmer, giving body and savour to the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they soften in the liquid.
Onion
Contributes savoury sweetness and aroma as it cooks slowly in the broth.
Celery
Adds herbal, aromatic background flavour to the simmering broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and prevents a muddy, off-flavoured result.

Swap the mace

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

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

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