Name: Brunswick Stew
Ingredients: 1 shank of beef (about 25 cents worth); 1 loaf of square bread; 1 quart potatoes, cooked and mashed; 1 quart cooked butter beans; 1 quart raw corn; 1/4 quart raw tomatoes, peeled and chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; 2-3 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

1 shank of beef (about 25 cents worth)
1 loaf of square bread
1 quart potatoes, cooked and mashed
1 quart cooked butter beans
1 quart raw corn
1/4 quart raw tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons butter

Directions

Make the base

In a large pot, place the shank of beef and cover with water to make a soup base.
Cook the shank for several hours until tender, then remove it from the pot.
Shred the meat, discarding any bones and gristle, and return it to the pot.

Finish the stew

Add the mashed potatoes, butter beans, corn, and chopped tomatoes to the pot.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Just before serving, stir in 2-3 tablespoons of butter.

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.

Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 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 shank: Slowly cooked until tender, it releases flavor and collagen that enrich the broth.
Potatoes: Mashed into the broth, they thicken the stew and give it a hearty body.
Butter beans: Add soft, starchy body and a mild creamy texture to the stew.
Corn: Adds sweetness and a tender bite that contrasts with the soft beans and meat.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and fresh flavor that brightens the rich broth.
Butter: Stirred in at the end, it adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish.

“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.