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Pot-au-feu

A traditional French stew of beef and root vegetables simmered slowly in broth.

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

Prepare

  1. Place the beef in a large saucepan or earthenware pot.

  2. Add the water, carrot, turnips, leeks, celery, onions, shallots, salt, and pepper.

Simmer

  1. Gradually warm the mixture until it simmers; do not allow it to boil.

  2. Cook for 5 hours to ensure the meat is tender and the broth is flavorful.

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. Leek + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together202 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

Rump beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the broth as it cooks.
Leeks
Contribute a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Onions
Add savory depth and sweetness to the broth as they soften.

The step that matters

Keep the liquid at a simmer, not a boil. Boiling toughens meat proteins and makes the broth cloudy, while gentle simmering keeps the beef tender and the broth clear.

Swap the clove

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

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

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