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Persian Stew

A stew of meat, onions, tomatoes, and rice simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Persian Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the base

  1. In a kettle, combine the meat and onions with ½ cup of cold water.

  2. Set over high heat and stir frequently until the meat and onions are well browned. If it starts to burn, add a spoonful of water as needed.

Stew

  1. Once browned, add 1 can of tomatoes, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Pour in 2 quarts of hot water and reduce heat to simmer.

  3. Let it stew slowly for at least 2 hours. If the stew dries out, add a little more water.

Finish with rice

  1. Half an hour before serving, stir in ½ cup of uncooked rice.

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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Meat
Provides the main protein and rich flavour as it browns and softens during the long stew.
Onions
Browning releases sweetness and depth that flavour the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the stewing liquid.
Uncooked rice
Absorbs liquid and thickens the stew as it cooks.

The step that matters

Browning the meat and onions over high heat. Browning drives Maillard reactions that build deep flavour. If the pan dries and scorches, the flavour turns bitter, so a little water must be added as needed while stirring.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, tomato, pepper, rice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, tomato, pepper, rice. 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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