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Beef Stew with Potato Crust

A beef stew topped with a baked potato crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Beef Stew with Potato Crust

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the stew

  1. Cook the beef in a pot with water, bringing it to a simmer, and cook for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. When the meat is tender, add 1 quart of tomatoes and thicken with flour.

Make the potato crust

  1. For the potato crust, beat together 1 cup of mashed potatoes, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of butter, and enough milk to make a smooth mixture.

  2. Work in flour until the dough is soft and can be rolled out to ½ inch thick.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the stew with the potato crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve the stew with the crust on top.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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
Becomes tender during long simmering, forming the body of the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture to the stew, giving it its base flavor.
Flour
Thickens the stew and helps bind the dough for the crust.
Mashed potatoes
Give the crust a soft, tender texture and moisture.
Egg
Binds the crust mixture and adds structure as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the crust.

The step that matters

Work in flour until the dough is soft. Too much flour makes the crust dense and stiff, while too little leaves it sticky and hard to roll out. Adding flour gradually lets you reach a dough that is soft and rollable.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, egg, butter, milk, flour, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, egg, butter, milk, flour, onion. 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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