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Virginia Game Broth

A hearty broth made with game, beans, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and pork, simmered with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lima beans and corn work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 222 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Virginia Game Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the jointed game in cold, slightly salted water for 1 hour.

  2. In a large pot, layer the game with the pork and all the vegetables except the tomatoes.

Stew

  1. Cover closely and stew on low heat for 3 hours.

  2. After 3 hours, add the tomatoes and sugar, and cook for another hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Season to taste, stir in the floured butter, and cook for 10 more minutes.

  2. Serve in a large 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. Lima beans + corntop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Floured butter melts into the broth, giving it body and a richer, silkier mouthfeel.
Lima beans
Starchy beans soften during stewing and thicken the broth while adding substance.
Potatoes
Starch from the parboiled potatoes breaks down into the broth, adding body and thickness.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, tangy flavor that balances the rich meat and fat.
Fat salt pork
Renders fat into the pot, carrying savory flavor through the stew.
Squirrels or wild rabbits
Provide the meat that gives the broth its main flavor and body.

The step that matters

Stirring in the floured butter. Flour mixed into butter must be added to hot liquid and stirred well, or it will clump; cooking it for several minutes thickens the broth and cooks out the raw flour taste.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, potato, corn, butter, flour, tomato, pork):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, potato, corn, butter, flour, tomato, pork. 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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