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Mrs. Garleton's Bouillon

A beef broth made by simmering beef, water, spices, and egg whites for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mrs. Garleton's Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine chopped beef and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 hour.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Add cloves, bay leaves, onion, salt, and cayenne.

  5. Boil for an additional 2.5 hours.

  6. Strain the broth and let it cool.

Clarify and finish

  1. The next day, remove the fat from the surface.

  2. Add the beaten egg whites to the broth.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Strain through a fine cloth until clear and golden.

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

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

  2. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

Onion and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,333 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and richness.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles so the broth clears when strained.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites and bringing to a boil. Egg whites must be fully beaten into the cool broth before heating. As they warm they coagulate and trap cloudy particles; stirring during the boil can break up the raft and leave the broth murky.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, 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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