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Pot -au- Feu

A traditional French beef stew made with beef, bones, vegetables, and herbs simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Pot -au- Feu

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Tie the beef neatly with string and place it in a 6-quart saucepan.

  2. Cover the meat with water and set it on the fire.

Skim and simmer

  1. Skim off the scum that rises as the water heats. Add salt to help the scum rise.

  2. After 20 minutes, add the studded onion, toasted onions, carrots, turnip, leeks, and bouquet garni gradually.

  3. Skim the pot for the last time and let it simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours.

  4. For extra flavor, add the carcass of a raw fowl or turkey.

  5. If desired, remove some soup and cook additional vegetables.

Strain and serve

  1. Before serving, strain the soup carefully.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and becomes tender during the long, gentle simmer.
Bones
Release gelatin and body into the broth, giving it a fuller mouthfeel.
Onions
Toasted onions add deep color and a sweet, roasted aroma to the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness to the broth as they soften in the simmer.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, sweet onion-like aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the scum as the water heats. Proteins and impurities rise to the surface as the water warms. Removing them early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, so it should be skimmed before it boils hard and mixes back in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, carrot, turnip, leek, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, carrot, turnip, leek, thyme, marjoram. 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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