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Parsnip Stew

A stew of salt pork, parsnips, and potatoes simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the salt pork for 1½ hours.

  2. Scrape the parsnips and cut them into quarters lengthwise.

  3. Add the parsnips to the pork and boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  4. Add a few potatoes and boil until the potatoes are soft.

  5. Ensure there is about 1 cup of liquid in the kettle before serving.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Parsnip + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

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

  3. Pork + parsniptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together306 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

Salt pork
Renders fat and seasons the broth with salty, savoury flavour during the long simmer.
Parsnips
Sweet, starchy vegetable that softens into the stew and adds body.
Potatoes
Starch releases as they cook, slightly thickening the broth.

The step that matters

Keep about 1 cup of liquid in the kettle. Long boiling evaporates water, which concentrates the broth and can make it too thick or scorch on the bottom. Keeping enough liquid maintains a loose, even texture and prevents the stew from sticking and burning.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, 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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