Name: Hungarian Beef Stew
Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds lean beef stew meat (top round), cut into 2-inch cubes; salt to taste; freshly ground black pepper; flour for dredging; 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; 1 small yellow onion, diced; 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped; 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped; 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped; 1 cup quartered mushrooms; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 bay leaf; 1 1/2 tablespoons sweet, Hungarian paprika; 1/2 cup dry red wine; 1 8cup diced, canned tomatoes; 2 cups low-sodium beef broth

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Mushroom + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 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 stew meat: Browned, then slowly simmered until tender, it provides the main body and meaty texture of the stew.
Flour: Dredging the beef helps it brown and thickens the cooking juices slightly.
Diced canned tomatoes: Add acidity and body to the broth as they simmer with the beef.
Sweet hungarian paprika: Gives the stew its characteristic sweet, earthy red colour and aroma.
Dry red wine: Adds depth and acidity, and its evaporation concentrates the flavour.
Beef broth: Supplies the liquid in which the meat becomes tender and the flavours blend.

The step that matters

Sear the meat on all sides. Browning the dredged beef in hot oil creates flavourful Maillard browning. Crowding the pot or burning the flour-coated surface would instead steam the meat and leave a bitter taste.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, pepper, flour, onion, mushroom, garlic):

Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Turmericfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, pepper, flour, onion, mushroom, garlic. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Hungarian Beef Stew