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Beef and Ale Stew with Dumplings

This most traditional of slow-cooked British classics is a corker of a one-pot winter warmer.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Star anise and rosemary share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 45 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4-6
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Star anise + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cinnamon + star anisetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Clove + star anisetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, cinnamon, star anise, flour, beef, carrot, celery):

  1. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, cinnamon, star anise, flour, beef, carrot, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).