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Pot Au Feu

A French beef stew simmered with beef, bones, carrots, turnips, parsnip, leeks, celery, bouquet garni, cloves, garlic, caramel sugar, cabbages, and black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot Au Feu

Ingredients

Directions

Start the broth

  1. Combine the beef and bones with 4 quarts of water in a large saucepan.

  2. Add a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Bring to a slow boil, skimming off any foam.

  4. Add the chopped carrots, turnips, and parsnip.

Add the aromatics

  1. Tie the leeks, celery, and bouquet garni together and add them to the pot.

  2. Insert the cloves into the eschalot or garlic and add it to the pot.

  3. Stir in the caramel or burnt sugar.

Simmer and finish

  1. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  2. Add the tied cabbages and a little black pepper.

  3. Simmer for another 2 hours.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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 flavour and, as it cooks slowly, tender meat and rich broth.
Bones
Add gelatin and savoury depth to the broth as they simmer.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth and the served vegetables.
Caramel or burnt sugar
Adds a deeper colour and a subtle roasted sweetness to the broth.
Cabbages
Absorb the broth's flavour while adding mild sweetness and body to the dish.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam as the pot comes to a boil. Foam carries proteins and impurities that cloud the broth and can taste bitter. Skimming early keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured. Bringing it to a slow boil rather than a hard one also keeps the liquid clear.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, parsnip, leek, celery, sugar. 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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