Skip to main content
Main

Persian Stew

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 meat

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

  2. Set over high heat and stir frequently until browned. If it risks burning, add a spoonful of water as needed.

Stew

  1. Once browned, add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, cayenne, and hot water.

  2. Reduce heat and let it stew slowly for at least two hours. If the stew becomes too dry, add a little water.

  3. Half an hour before serving, stir in the 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 fat, which render and add savory richness to the stew.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, building flavor into the base of the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, rounding out the flavor of the stew.
Uncooked rice
Absorbs liquid and thickens the stew as it cooks in the pot.

The step that matters

Browning the meat and onions. Stirring over high heat until browned develops deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. Stirring often and adding water as needed keeps the pot from scorching before the stew begins.

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.

You might also like

Meatless Tomato SoupMeatless Tomato Soup23 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipes