Skip to main content
Main

Iced Boullion

A chilled beef broth made by simmering beef, vegetables, and spices, then clarifying and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Iced Boullion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Wipe and chop the beef finely.

  2. Add the beef and cold water to a pot.

  3. Let the mixture stand in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

  4. Heat the mixture slowly.

  5. Skim off any foam.

  6. Simmer for 4 hours.

  7. Add the onions, carrots, soup greens, cloves, mace, peppercorns, and salt.

  8. Simmer for an additional hour.

Strain and clarify

  1. Strain the broth and cool it.

  2. Once chilled, remove all grease.

  3. Pour off the clear liquid.

  4. If the liquid is cloudy, clarify it.

Season and serve

  1. Adjust salt to taste.

  2. Deepen the color with caramel if desired.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of sherry to each pint.

  4. Serve the broth icy cold.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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

Lean beef
Provides the meaty flavor and body of the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the long-simmered broth.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Peppercorns
Add a mild, aromatic pepper note to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam. Foam contains coagulated proteins and impurities that cloud the broth and can taint its flavor if left in during simmering.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, clove, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, clove, sherry. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes