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A Simple Bouillon

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, vegetables, and seasonings, then strained and finished with egg white and shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

A Simple Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Melt the butter in a granite saucepan.

  2. Add the onion and cook until brown.

Simmer the stock

  1. Add the beef, vegetables, and 1 quart of cold water.

  2. Set on the back of the stove to heat slowly and let it simmer gently for three hours.

  3. Strain the mixture and return the liquid to the kettle.

Clarify and strain

  1. Bring to a boil.

  2. Beat the egg white with ½ cup of cold water and add the crushed shell to the boiling bouillon.

  3. Boil for 4 minutes, then let it stand for 1 minute to settle.

  4. Strain through wet cheesecloth.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + carrottop 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
Provides the main meaty flavor and body of the broth as it simmers.
Egg white and shell
Coagulates as it heats, trapping cloudy particles so they can be strained out for a clearer broth.
Onion
Browning in the butter adds deeper, savory color and flavor to the broth.
Butter
Carries the flavor of the onion and vegetables at the start of the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the egg white and shell to the boiling bouillon. Egg white proteins coagulate as they heat and trap fine cloudy particles. Stirring it in and then letting the broth stand before straining lets these clumps settle so the strained broth comes out clear rather than murky.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, onion, celery, carrot, parsley, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, onion, celery, carrot, parsley, egg. 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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