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Stewed Potatoes with Onions

A simple stew of potatoes and onions cooked in butter or goose oil, seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Potatoes with Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and wash the potatoes very clean.

  2. In a pot, heat the butter or goose oil.

  3. Finely chop the onion and add it to the hot fat.

  4. Add the potatoes to the pot.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

Stew

  1. Pour in a little water (not too much) and cover tightly.

  2. Let them simmer for about 45 minutes.

  3. If desired, add a little vinegar for a sour taste.

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

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 dish and soften into a tender, moist texture as they stew.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the hot fat.
Butter or goose oil
Carries flavor and fat into the pot and helps the onion and potatoes brown lightly.
Vinegar
Adds a sour note that brightens the rich, starchy flavor of the potatoes.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and keep the water low. A small amount of water with a tight lid traps steam so the potatoes cook gently in their own moisture. Too much water dilutes the flavor and turns the dish soupy rather than stewed.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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