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Chili Con Carne

A hearty stew of browned steak, onions, tomatoes, beans, and spices simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Chili Con Carne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Grind the round steak in a meat chopper and fry it brown in the suet fat.

Make the stew

  1. In a stew pan, combine the strained tomatoes, browned meat, chopped onions, salt, paprika, and vinegar. Stir well.

  2. Cook on low heat for 30 to 60 minutes.

  3. Add the water and cooked beans, then simmer on low heat for an additional hour.

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. Tomato + kidney beanstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together821 recipes

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

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

  5. Vinegar + tomatotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the main meaty body and substance of the chili.
Suet fat
Carries heat for browning the meat and adds richness and flavour.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften during cooking.
Tomatoes
Supply acidity and liquid that build the body of the sauce.
Brown or kidney beans
Add starchy body and texture, thickening the stew as they simmer.

The step that matters

Browning the meat in the suet fat. Frying the meat until well browned triggers the Maillard reaction, which builds deep, savoury flavour. Meat added pale and steamed in the pot tastes flat and grey.

Swap the kidney beans

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, vinegar, tomato. 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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