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Tomato Stewed Beef

A stew of beef simmered in tomatoes, butter, flour, sugar, and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Tomato Stewed Beef

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scald the tomatoes, then skin and quarter them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  2. In a stew pan, bury the beef in the tomatoes. Add the butter rolled in flour, sugar, and minced onion.

  3. Cook until the meat is done and the tomatoes have dissolved into a pulp.

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

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

  3. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main liquid and body, breaking down into a pulp that forms the stew sauce.
Beef
Supplies the main protein, becoming tender as it cooks slowly in the tomatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the stew.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and tomato liquid.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory depth to the stew base.

The step that matters

Cook until the meat is done and the tomatoes have dissolved into a pulp. Cooking long enough lets the beef become tender and the tomatoes break down, which thickens and builds the sauce. Stopping early leaves tough meat and a thin, watery sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, sugar, onion, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, sugar, onion, pepper. 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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