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Beef, Oatmeal and Tomato

A slow-cooked beef stew with oatmeal, tomato, sausages, and Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef, Oatmeal and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Cut the sausages into 1‑inch pieces, roll in flour, and place in an earthen dish.

  3. Add the canned tomato, oatmeal, and Worcestershire sauce to the dish.

Cook

  1. Cook for 5 hours in an Aladdin Pail.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Provides rich, savory meat flavor, and its connective tissue softens into tender pieces during long cooking.
Sausages
Add fat and savory, seasoned flavor to the stew as they cook.
Flour
Coats the sausage pieces and helps thicken the cooking liquid.
Canned tomato
Adds acidity, moisture, and fruity tang that balances the rich meats.
Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid during cooking, adding body and thickening the stew.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds fermented, savory depth and a touch of acidity to the stew.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, flour, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, flour, sauce. 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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