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Stewed Corn

A stew of corn, meat, onions, carrots, herbs, and tomatoes simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Corn

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the corn from the cob.

  2. Boil the corn in water for 1.5 hours, reducing the liquid to 1 quart.

  3. Add the meat, onions, carrots, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and tomatoes.

  4. Stew until the vegetables are tender.

  5. If the gravy is too thick, add a little boiling water or cream.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  3. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together794 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Corn
Forms the main body of the dish and, as it simmers, gives the stew its sweetness.
Fresh meat
Adds savory richness and body to the stew as it cooks down in the liquid.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and moisture that help build the gravy.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and soften during the long stew to thicken the mixture.

The step that matters

Reducing the corn cooking liquid to 1 quart. Boiling the corn for a long time concentrates the liquid and starches released from the kernels, which builds the gravy. Reducing too far makes the stew thick and pasty, while stopping early leaves it thin, so the volume should be checked as it cooks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, meat, carrot, pepper, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, meat, carrot, pepper, tomato. 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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