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Hotch-potch

A hearty stew of minced beef and assorted vegetables cooked slowly in a jar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash, scrape, and slice the vegetables.

  2. Put all the vegetables except the tomatoes into a pot, cover with hot water, and boil gently for 10 minutes.

  3. Drain off the water and place a handful of mixed vegetables, including the tomatoes, in the bottom of a stone jar.

Layer and cook

  1. Season with pepper and salt, then layer with minced raw beef, repeating the order until all ingredients are in the jar.

  2. Fit a top or small plate over the jar's mouth and tie it down with greased paper.

  3. Place the jar in the oven and let it cook for 5 to 6 hours, checking occasionally to ensure the paper does not catch fire.

Finish and serve

  1. After cooking, turn out the hotch-potch, stir in the butter, adjust seasoning if needed, and serve in a 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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

Lean beef
Provides the meat base and savoury flavour as it cooks slowly in the jar.
Potatoes
Starch that thickens the broth and gives the stew body as it breaks down.
Carrots
Adds natural sweetness and colour while holding shape during long cooking.
Onions
Builds savoury depth and aroma as they soften and release their sugars.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and brightness that balances the rich beef and vegetables.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Keeping the paper-covered jar sealed and monitored in the oven. The jar cooks the beef and vegetables slowly in their own juices over hours, so the cover must hold steam in. The paper can scorch or catch fire in a hot oven, so it needs periodic checking.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, potato, corn):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, potato, corn. 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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