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Beef Broth

A clear beef broth made by simmering a leg or shin with vegetables and trimmings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef Broth

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Beef Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the beef leg or shin and ask the butcher to crack the bone in two or three places.

  2. Place the beef and any trimmings in a pot and cover with cold water.

Simmer and skim

  1. Stir well and skim the surface as soon as it begins to simmer to keep the broth clear.

  2. Add more cold water to help rise any remaining scum and skim again.

  3. Once the surface is clear, add the carrot, celery, turnips, and onions.

  4. Cover the pot and let it simmer gently for four to five hours, depending on the weight of the meat.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the broth through a sieve into a clean container and store in the coldest place.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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

Beef leg or shin
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the broth body and richness.
Beef trimmings
Add extra collagen and savoury depth to the broth as they simmer.
Onions
Contribute savoury sweetness and aroma as they cook into the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavour to the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum at the start of simmering. Scum made of coagulated proteins and fats rises as the water heats. If it is left to boil back into the liquid, it makes the broth cloudy and greasy, so skimming early keeps it clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, carrot, celery, turnip. 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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