Why it works: Pork and beef match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓
Mershox Woods Stew
serves each participant twice (serving thirty people noted)Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meats
Take a pot large enough to hold enough stew to serve each participant twice.
If serving thirty people, take one and one-half pounds of salted fat pig pork, clean and scrape thoroughly, then cut into very thin slices.
Take a knuckle of veal with a few short ribs, fat enough to add at least a pound of veal.
Take one and one-half pounds of mutton, not lamb, preferably brisket or rib piece.
Cut one and one-half pounds of lean beef into small squares, not over one inch square.
Cut the veal and mutton up.
Take one fowl weighing four or five pounds, cut into eight or nine pieces, and disjoint it.
Do not break a bone: take drumsticks at the joint, the second joint at the hip joint, remove each wing, break the back bone into two pieces, leave the breast whole.
If no fowl, use two spring chickens.
Do not put rabbit in the stew; a partridge, squirrel, or small piece of venison may be added.
Prepare the vegetables
If you have fresh parsnips, clean and slice about four medium sized ones.
Quarter or slice potatoes, not too fine, and have at least three quarts of them.
Prepare six or eight carrots, sliced onions sufficient to fill a two-quart basin, and one-half dozen raw tomatoes if in season.
Layer and cook
Sprinkle the bottom of the kettle with sliced potatoes.
Add a layer of salt pork.
Add some of the other vegetables alternating with the meat.
Season each two or three courses by adding six or eight little red peppers, one handful of pepper-corn, and grinding a few pepper-corns.
If you have one or two old fashioned bell peppers that have gone to seed, put them whole.
Add salt as needed, but do not remove it.
Ensure the kettle is not more than two-thirds full; add pure cold water to cover all ingredients by two to three inches.
Place the kettle on the stove, bring to a boil, then move it to the back of the stove to simmer; keep bubbling, not hard boiling, for two and one-half hours.
Leave the cover off the pot and occasionally skim the surface.
Serve hot as a soup or soup-course.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 13 of 14 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 13 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Pork | 100g cooked | 242 |
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Venison | 100g cooked | 158 |
| Lima Bean | 1/2 cup (85g) cooked | 108 |
| Corn | 1/2 cup kernels (82g) | 77 |
| Pea | 1/2 cup (72g) | 62 |
| Broccoli | 1 cup chopped (156g) | 55 |
| Bell Pepper | 1 medium (119g) | 31 |
| Carrot | 1 medium (61g) | 25 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Seed | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
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.
-
Pork + beeftop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
-
Lima beans + peastop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together85 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
Corn + lima beanstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together222 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,081 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pork + corntop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,069 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fat pork
- Renders fat that flavours the broth and adds richness to the stew.
- Lean beef
- Provides meaty flavour and chewy texture after long, gentle simmering.
- Fowl
- Contributes savoury flavour and body to the broth as it cooks.
- Potatoes (in the method)
- Thicken the stew slightly as they break down and absorb the broth.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and colour to the stew.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and brightness to the broth.
The step that matters
Keep the simmer gentle and skim the surface. A hard boil breaks up the meat and clouds the broth, while gentle bubbling keeps it clear. Skimming removes foam and excess fat that would otherwise taint the flavour.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, beef, corn, lima beans, peas, pepper, venison):
- Potatofits better
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, beef, corn, lima beans, peas, pepper, venison. 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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