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Parsnip Stew

A stew of parsnips, salt pork, dumplings, and seasonings simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 270 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fry the salt pork in a flat-bottomed kettle until browned, then remove it.

  2. Layer half of the parsnips evenly in the kettle.

  3. Add the pork scraps on top of the parsnips, then layer the remaining parsnips.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and a sprig of thyme.

  5. Add enough water to cover the parsnips.

Cook and finish

  1. When nearly done, add the dumplings and cover tightly.

  2. Cook for 15 minutes without removing the cover.

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. Parsnip + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsnip + biscuittop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + biscuittop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the stew and soften into a sweet, tender base as they simmer.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor as it browns and seasons the stew from within.
Dumplings
Steam in the covered kettle to become light, soft and tender in the stew.

The step that matters

Cover tightly when adding the dumplings. Keeping the lid on traps steam so the dumplings cook through and rise lightly. Lifting the cover lets steam escape, which can leave them dense and gummy on top while the bottom stays wet.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, thyme, tea, biscuit):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, thyme, tea, biscuit. 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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