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Goulash

A Hungarian beef stew with onions, peppers, tomatoes, paprika, and potatoes simmered in water.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Goulash

Time15 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Fry half of the onions in a pot with olive oil.

  2. Put a layer of meat over the fried onions.

  3. Add a layer of raw onions, peppers, tomato, whole garlic cloves, spices, and salt.

  4. Add another meat layer.

  5. Continue layering until all ingredients except potato are used.

Simmer

  1. Cover the meat with water.

  2. Put a lid and simmer on low heat.

  3. Add water only if there is not enough while cooking.

  4. Stir minimally.

  5. When the meat is cooked and tender, add potatoes.

  6. Add additional water to cover if needed.

  7. Cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

639Calories
34 gProtein
30 gFat
61 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Stewnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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

Stew beef
Becomes tender through long, slow simmering, providing the main body of the stew.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry and cook down, building the stew's base flavour.
Ground sweet paprika
Gives the stew its characteristic red colour and mild, sweet paprika flavour.
Potatoes
Absorb the cooking liquid and thicken the stew as they soften.
Bell peppers
Release sweetness and moisture as they cook, adding body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the meat on low heat with minimal stirring. Low, gentle heat breaks down the tough collagen in stew beef slowly, so it turns tender instead of firm. Frequent stirring or a rolling boil can toughen the meat and cloud the liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, beef, pepper, tomato, garlic, potato):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, beef, pepper, tomato, garlic, potato. 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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