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Beef or Mutton Stew

A hearty stew of beef or mutton simmered with mixed vegetables and water, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Beef or Mutton Stew

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef or mutton into chunks.

  2. In a large pot, combine the meat and water.

Simmer and finish

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

  2. Add the mixed vegetables and salt.

  3. Cook until the meat is tender and the vegetables are cooked through, about 30 minutes.

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. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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 or mutton
Provides the main body; long gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue so the meat turns tender.
Mixed vegetables
Add bulk and body, and their starches and natural sugars soften and thicken the broth slightly as they cook.

The step that matters

Simmer gently instead of boiling hard. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue in the meat break down slowly, giving tender results. A hard rolling boil tightens muscle fibres and toughens the meat, and it can also break up the vegetables.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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