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Russian Pot-au-feu

A hearty soup of mutton, cabbage, carrots, onions, barley, and prunes simmered in water with fennel, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Fennel and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Russian Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a saucepan, combine 3 quarts of cold water, 4 pounds of mutton, fennel, pepper, and salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off the scum as it rises.

Simmer and serve

  1. Once boiling, add the cabbage, carrots, onions, and pearl barley.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.

  3. Add prunes and simmer for an additional hour.

  4. Serve in a soup tureen.

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. Fennel + carrottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + barleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  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

Mutton
Provides the main meat and rich flavour that gives the broth its body.
Pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth slightly and gives the soup a hearty texture.
Prunes
Add sweetness and a deep, fruity note that balances the savoury broth.
Cabbage
Soaks up broth flavour and adds soft, mild body to the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as the broth boils. Foam rising from the meat contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it as it forms keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting instead of cloudy and greasy.

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, cabbage, carrot, onion, barley):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Fennelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, cabbage, carrot, onion, barley. 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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