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Spanish Stew

A hearty chicken stew with tomatoes, peppers, onions, peas, mushrooms, and potatoes.

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

Spanish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew base

  1. In a kettle, combine the chicken, tomatoes, peppers, and onion.

  2. Add the boiling water and cover the kettle.

  3. Simmer until the chicken is tender.

  4. Remove the chicken and strain the remaining contents of the kettle.

  5. Rub the vegetable mixture through a sieve back into the kettle.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the French peas, mushrooms, grated potatoes, and salt.

  2. Cook until the potatoes are tender.

  3. Return the chicken to the kettle and heat thoroughly.

  4. Serve with a border of mashed potatoes or boiled rice.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Chicken
Gives the stew its main protein and rich meaty flavor as it simmers in the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, and their pulp thickens the stew once sieved.
Potatoes
Grated potatoes thicken the broth and add starch for a fuller texture.
Red peppers
Add sweetness and fresh pepper flavor to the stew base.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Rub the vegetable mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked tomatoes, peppers, and onion through a sieve breaks them down into a smooth, thickened base. Skipping or rushing this leaves the stew thin and chunky.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, tomato, pepper, mushroom, potato):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, tomato, pepper, mushroom, potato. 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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