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Boiled Dinner

A hearty stew of corned beef with potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage simmered in salted water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Dinner

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.

Prepare

  1. Place the corned beef in a large pot and cover with water.

  2. Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to the pot.

Simmer and serve

  1. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.

  2. Add cabbage in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt to taste 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 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

Corned beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Potatoes
Starchy vegetable that thickens the broth slightly and holds its shape while simmering.
Carrots
Firm root vegetable that softens during simmering and adds gentle sweetness.
Onions
Adds savory depth and aroma to the broth as they cook down.
Cabbage
Added late so it becomes tender without turning overly soft or losing its texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cabbage in the last 30 minutes. Cabbage cooks quickly. Adding it too early lets it turn mushy and sulfurous, while adding it late keeps it tender with some texture.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, carrot, onion. 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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