Skip to main content
Main

Brazilian Stew

A slow‑cooked beef stew with carrots, turnips, onions, herbs, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Brazilian Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut all the meat off the bone and into neat pieces.

  2. Dip each piece of meat into the vinegar in a basin to tenderize.

  3. Wash and slice the carrots.

  4. Peel and slice the turnips and onions.

Cook

  1. Place the meat in a saucepan, arranging it closely together.

  2. Sprinkle pepper and salt over the meat.

  3. Add the sliced vegetables and the tied bunch of herbs.

  4. Do not add water; the vinegar will draw out the juices for gravy.

  5. Cover the saucepan tightly and simmer gently by the fire for at least three hours.

  6. Serve the stew on a hot dish or in a soup tureen.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin or sticking beef
Slow simmering breaks down tough connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and rich.
Vinegar
Its acidity softens the meat surface and helps draw out juices that form the gravy.
Onions
They soften and sweeten as they simmer, adding body and savoury depth to the gravy.
Turnips
They soften during long cooking and add mild sweetness and body to the gravy.
Carrots
They soften and release natural sugars, adding sweetness and colour to the stew.

The step that matters

Covering the pan and simmering gently. Without added water, the stew relies on juices released from the meat and vegetables. A tight lid traps that moisture, and gentle heat prevents the meat from toughening through fast boiling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, marjoram, thyme, parsley, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, marjoram, thyme, parsley, pepper. 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

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes