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Soup

Gilt-edged Bouillon

A clear beef broth made with beef, spices, tomatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gilt-edged Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients into a soup kettle.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer steadily.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main savory flavor, and its connective tissue softens into gelatin that gives the broth body.
Cold water
Serves as the liquid that slowly draws flavor out of the beef and spices as it heats.
Fresh or canned tomatoes
Adds acidity and a rounded, savory depth to the broth.
Allspice berries
Contribute warm, aromatic flavor to the broth.
Cloves
Add a strong, warm aroma that runs through the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer steadily, do not boil hard. A hard, rolling boil agitates the broth, emulsifying fat and breaking up proteins so the broth turns cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid clear while flavor and gelatin slowly extract from the beef.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, allspice, tomato, garlic, pepper, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, allspice, tomato, garlic, pepper, celery. 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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