Name: Welsh Stew
Ingredients: a teaspoonful of white pepper; two dozens of button onions; six young mild turnips; 1/2 teaspoonful; white pepper; salt

Why it works: Onion and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,585 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Welsh Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Use the same proportions of beef and broth or water as for the German Stew.
Simmer gently for one hour.
Add the white part of 20 to 30 leeks, or two dozen button onions, and five or six young mild turnips cut into slices, a small lump of white sugar, nearly half a teaspoonful of white pepper, and more than twice as much salt.
Stew the whole softly for an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, after the vegetables are added.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

84Calories

2 gProtein

0 gFat

19 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Turnip	1 medium (122g)	34
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

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

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
White pepper + turniptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together275 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
White pepper + oniontop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,395 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Turnips: Add mild sweetness and soft texture as they stew through the broth.
Button onions: Soften and sweeten as they cook slowly, adding savoury depth to the broth.
White sugar: Balances the saltiness and pepper with a touch of sweetness.