Skip to main content
Main

Beef Goulash

A hearty stew of beef, onions, carrots, potatoes, peas, and milk simmered in drippings and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Goulash

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. Heat the drippings in a kettle until smoking hot.

  2. Add the beef and brown it on all sides.

  3. Remove the beef and add the onions and carrots to the kettle.

  4. Return the beef to the kettle, then add the salt, paprika, and water.

Simmer and finish

  1. Cook slowly until the meat is tender.

  2. Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in a can of peas.

  4. Once done, add the milk and bring to a boil before serving.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Onion + carrottop 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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main protein, which browns for flavor and becomes tender with slow cooking.
Drippings
Fat that carries heat well, so the beef browns quickly and deeply.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet as they cook, adding depth to the stew's base.
Potatoes
Starch that softens during cooking, adding body and substance to the stew.
Paprika
Adds color and a mild, sweet-smoky aroma to the broth.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the finished liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the beef in smoking-hot drippings. Searing at high heat triggers the Maillard reaction, creating deep brown flavor. If the pan is not hot enough or is crowded, the meat steams and turns grey, losing that flavor.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, potato, milk. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes