Name: Brunswick Stew
Ingredients: 1 shank of beef (about 25 cents); 1 loaf of square bread; 1 quart potatoes, cooked and mashed; 1 quart cooked butter beans; 1 quart raw corn, cut from the cob; 1 quart raw tomatoes, peeled and chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; 2-3 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

1 shank of beef (about 25 cents)
1 loaf of square bread
1 quart potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 quart cooked butter beans
1 quart raw corn, cut from the cob
1 quart raw tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons butter

Directions

Make the stew

In a large pot, prepare the shank of beef as you would for soup at the earliest possible hour.
At noon, remove the shank, shred the meat, and discard any bones and gristle.
Return the shredded meat to the pot and add the mashed potatoes, butter beans, corn, and chopped tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

When ready to serve, stir in 2-3 tablespoons of butter.

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.

Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 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 shank: Gives the stew its meaty flavor and body as it cooks down into the broth.
Potatoes: Thicken the stew and add body as they break down into the liquid.
Butter beans: Add creamy texture and substance, holding their shape while the stew simmers.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and brightness that balance the rich meat and butter.
Corn: Adds sweetness and a fresh, tender bite to the stew.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

“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.