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 ↓
No. 1. — First Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Place the beef and cold water in a stock pot.
Heat and skim off the scum carefully.
Add carrots, turnips, celery, leeks, and 4 onions (one studded with cloves).
Stir in a handful of coarse sea salt.
Simmer for 5 hours, skimming off fat as needed.
Strain the broth through a double silk sieve.
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.
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Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,310 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
- Beef
- Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and savory depth to the broth as they cook down.
- Carrots
- Contribute natural sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum and fat. Scum forms as proteins coagulate when the water heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear, and skimming fat during simmering keeps the broth from tasting greasy.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, onion):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, onion. 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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