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Stew

A stew of meat and potatoes simmered overnight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Stew

Why it works: Potato and meat work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 786 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Tie the meat into a compact lump.

  2. Pour scalding water over the meat and place it in the cooker.

Simmer

  1. Let it simmer overnight, just covered with water.

  2. In the morning, check that the meat is tender.

Serve

  1. Slice the meat for dinner or use it in a stew.

  2. For the stew, pare and slice the potatoes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

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

  2. Potato + sweet potatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2 recipes

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

  3. Sweet potato + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together60 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Long, slow simmering turns the tough neck and bones tender and flavourful.
White potatoes
Starch thickens the stew liquid and gives it a soft, hearty body.
Sweet potato
Adds natural sweetness and a softer, creamier texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Simmering overnight just covered with water. Too much water dilutes the broth, and too much heat can toughen the meat. A gentle, low simmer lets collagen in the neck and bones break down slowly, so the meat becomes tender without falling apart into the liquid.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, meat. 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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