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Mediterranean Beef Stew

A beef stew with olives, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and olive oil.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 6 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 ↓

Mediterranean Beef Stew

Serves 4
Timetwo hours

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gently fry the onion and garlic in plenty of good olive oil for a few minutes, taking care not to brown them.

  2. Season the beef well with salt and black pepper. Immediately add the beef to the pan.

  3. Fry the beef until evenly sealed and lightly browned.

Simmer

  1. Add the olives and tomatoes to the pan.

  2. Simmer gently for two hours with the lid on.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

450Calories
29 gProtein
30 gFat
17 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Olive1 large (4g)4
Garlic1 clove (3g)4

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. 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
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the stew after slow simmering.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that build the sauce as they cook down.
Green olives
Contribute salty, briny flavour that seasons the stew.
Onion
Softens and adds sweetness as a flavour base for the stew.
Garlic
Adds aromatic pungency that mellows during gentle frying.

The step that matters

Frying the onion and garlic gently. Frying over low heat softens the onion and releases garlic's aroma without browning. Browning them would turn the flavour bitter and harsh, and it would change the clean taste of the stew.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

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