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Stock, or Pot-au-feu

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stock, or Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fill a pot half full with the meat and bones.

  2. Add cold water to fill the pot.

  3. Do not let it boil for the first half hour.

  4. After 30 minutes, let it simmer gently for 4 to 7 hours.

  5. Skim the surface regularly and cook until it reaches a rich consistency.

  6. Remove from heat and strain through a coarse cloth.

  7. Set aside to cool and remove all the fat when cold.

  8. If desired, add jelly from a cow heel or a lump of butter rolled in flour for richness.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + lambtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + lambtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, lamb, veal, carrot, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Turnipfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, lamb, veal, carrot, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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