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Potato Stew

A stew of sliced potatoes, onions, and milk, finished with cheese and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, wash, and slice the potatoes.

  2. Chop the onions and parsley.

Stew

  1. Layer some potatoes in a saucepan, followed by onions, pepper, and salt; repeat until all ingredients are used.

  2. Pour in the water and stew gently for 1 hour.

  3. Add the milk and stew for an additional 20 minutes until everything is cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Turn out neatly onto a dish, sprinkle with cheese, and brown under the broiler.

  2. Garnish with chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the stew and soften into a tender, starchy body as they cook.
Onions
Add sweetness and savour that deepens during slow stewing.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the stewing liquid.
Sweet cheese
Melts and browns under the broiler, adding a golden crust and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Browning under the broiler. Cheese can burn quickly under high heat, while milk-based dishes can scorch or curdle if overheated. Watch closely so the cheese browns evenly without the dish drying out or the sauce separating.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, cheese, butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, cheese, butter, pepper, parsley. 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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