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Chile Con Carne

A stew of ground beef, onions, kidney beans, tomatoes, ketchup, and spices thickened with brown flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chile Con Carne

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a large pot, brown the hamburger steak over medium heat.

  2. Add the bag of onions and mixed spices, cooking until the onions are soft.

  3. Stir in the kidney beans, ketchup, and tomatoes.

  4. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Gradually add the brown flour to thicken the mixture, stirring well.

  6. Cook for an additional 10 minutes before serving.

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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Kidney beans + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together821 recipes

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

  3. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + kidney beanstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,050 recipes

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

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hamburger steak
Provides the meat base and savory browned flavor when seared in the pot.
Onions
Soften during cooking and add sweetness and body to the chile.
Kidney beans
Add texture and bulk, holding their shape through the simmer.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and liquid that forms the base of the sauce.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness, tang and thickness to the sauce.
Brown flour
Thickens the simmering liquid as it is stirred in.

The step that matters

Adding the brown flour. Flour added to hot liquid can clump into lumps. Adding it gradually while stirring well lets the starch disperse evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, ketchup, tomato, flour):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ketchup, tomato, flour. 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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