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Bkunswick Stew

A hearty stew made with chicken or beef, butter beans, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bkunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the chickens, squirrels, or beef in water until cooked.

  2. Cook the butter beans and add them to the pot.

  3. Add the tomatoes and mashed potatoes to the pot.

  4. When done, add the corn and large tomatoes.

  5. Cut the meat into small pieces and return it to the pot.

  6. Stir in the butter and season with salt and pepper.

  7. Cook until thick enough to be beaten with a fork.

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. Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Beans + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 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

Butter beans
Add body and starch, thickening the stew and making it hearty.
Potatoes
Mashed into the liquid, they add starch that helps thicken the stew.
Butter
Stirred in at the end, it adds richness and a smooth, rounded flavor.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid, giving the stew its base flavor.

The step that matters

Cook until thick enough to be beaten with a fork. Stew thickens as starch from the beans and mashed potatoes releases and gels during simmering. Stopping too early leaves it thin, while overcooking can scorch the bottom of the pot, so stir often near the end.

“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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