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Virginia Brunswick Stew

A hearty stew of chicken, bacon, potatoes, corn, beans, tomatoes, and bread, seasoned with pepper, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Virginia Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, bring 3 gallons of water to a boil.

  2. Add the cut-up chickens and finely chopped bacon.

  3. Cook until the chicken meat separates from the bones.

  4. Remove the chickens.

  5. Separate the meat from the bones.

  6. Return the meat to the pot.

Finish the stew

  1. Stir in the mashed potatoes, green corn, green butter beans, and skinned tomatoes.

  2. Add the light bread just before the stew is nearly done.

  3. Season with black pepper, red pepper, coarse sea salt, and butter.

  4. Stir constantly as the stew thickens.

  5. Add more water if it becomes too thick.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 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

Chickens
Provide the meat that becomes the body of the stew.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor to the cooking liquid.
Irish potatoes
Mashed into the stew, they thicken the liquid and add body.
Light bread
Soaks up liquid and helps thicken the stew as it cooks.
Green corn
Adds sweetness and tender texture to the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fruity flavor that balances the rich fat.

The step that matters

Stir constantly as the stew thickens. Starches from the mashed potatoes and bread can settle and scorch on the bottom of the pot. Constant stirring keeps the stew smooth and prevents burning as it thickens.

“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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