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Parsnip Stew

A stew of pork, potatoes, and parsnips cooked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a kettle, boil the pork pieces for 1 hour.

  2. Add the potatoes and parsnips, using more potatoes than parsnips.

  3. Boil for another hour, adding enough water to prevent sticking.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

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

  3. Pork + parsniptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together306 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

Pork
Provides meat flavour and richness to the broth as it simmers.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, thickening the stew and adding body.
Parsnips
Add sweetness and a earthy aroma as they soften in the liquid.

The step that matters

Adding water during the second hour. Starchy vegetables and meat can stick and scorch on the bottom of a pot as liquid reduces. Adding water as needed keeps the stew from burning and maintains an even simmer.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato):

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato. 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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