Name: Brunswick Stew
Ingredients: 1/4 lb slab bacon, rough diced; 2 Thai or other dried red chiles, stems trimmed and sliced (I added the whole Thai chiles - seeds and all! If you do not want at much heat, leave out the seeds).; 1 1/4 lb. boneless pork loin, chopped into large pieces; 1 4-5 lb. chicken, quartered, skinned, and most of the fat removed; 1 Tablespoon Kosher salt for seasoning, plus extra to taste; Freshly ground black pepper; 10-12 cups low-sodium chicken broth (or use homemade); 2 Bay leaves; 2 large celery stalks; 2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, or other waxy type potatoes, peeled, rough diced; 1 1/2 cups chopped carrots (about 5 small carrots); 3 cups chopped onion (about 4 medium onions); 2 cups corn kernels cut from the cob (about 4 ears) (I used frozen corn as fresh corn was not available); 3 cups butterbeans, preferably fresh (or defrosted frozen) (I used frozen lima beans as fresh beans were not available); 1 28 oz can whole, peeled tomatoes, drained (I did use some of the tomato juice in the stew); 1/4 cup red wine vinegar; Juice of 1 lemon; Cholula sauce to taste (You can use Tabasco, however, I think Cholula adds far more flavor.)

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pork + chickentop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, chicken, pepper, celery, potato, carrot, corn):

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, chicken, pepper, celery, potato, carrot, corn. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Lima Bean	1/2 cup (85g) cooked	108
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery Stalks	1 stalk (40g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Seed	not in our table	0
Beans	not in our table	0
Stew	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Brunswick Stew

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

Explore the science

The flavor team

Swap the onion