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Pot Au Feu and Bouilli

A French beef stew made by simmering beef, bones, vegetables, and seasonings for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 and Bouilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

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

  2. Fill the saucepan with enough water to cover the meat and bones.

Make the broth

  1. Heat over the fire, skimming off any scum that rises as the water warms.

  2. Add small amounts of cold water to help remove scum and prevent boiling.

  3. Once the scum is removed, add salt, pepper, allspice, onion, leek, carrots, turnips, and bouquet garni at intervals.

  4. Simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours, skimming for the last time.

  5. If desired, add celery and parsnips during cooking.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the broth and skim off the fat, then stir in pounded loaf sugar.

  2. Serve the hot broth over toasted bread and add sliced vegetables.

  3. Remove the string from the meat, serve it, and garnish with mashed potatoes or seasonal vegetables.

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. Leek + turniptop 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. Leek + parsniptop 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

Fresh beef
Supplies the meat that is served after the broth is made, and its collagen enriches the broth.
Bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the broth during the long simmer, giving it body.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook slowly in the liquid.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and a fresh, earthy aroma to the broth.
Leek
Adds a mild onion-like aroma that rounds out the broth's flavour.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while the water warms. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the water heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, and adding cold water helps it rise and separate.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, clove, leek, carrot, turnip, parsnip):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, clove, leek, carrot, turnip, parsnip. 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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