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Beef, Oatmeal and Tomato

A stew of beef, sausage, oatmeal, and tomato seasoned with pepper, salt, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef, Oatmeal and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the beef pieces with pepper and salt.

  2. Roll the sausage pieces in flour and place them in an earthen dish.

Cook

  1. Add the canned tomato, oatmeal, and Worcestershire sauce to the dish.

  2. Cook in an Aladdin Pail for five hours.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Tough connective tissue softens into tender, rich meat during long slow cooking.
Sausages
Add fat and savory flavor that spreads into the stew as it cooks.
Flour
Coats the sausage pieces and helps lightly thicken the surrounding liquid.
Canned tomato
Provides the liquid base and a gentle acidity that balances the meat.
Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and starch, giving the stew body and a thicker texture.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that rounds out the meat and tomato.

The step that matters

Cook in an Aladdin Pail for five hours. Shin is tough connective tissue. Long, gentle cooking converts its collagen into gelatin, making the meat tender. Cooking too briefly leaves it chewy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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