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Baked Hotch-potch

A baked stew of beef, sausage, vegetables, rice, and peas cooked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Hotch-potch

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Layer the beef, sausage meat, onion, cucumber, tomatoes, asparagus, carrot, rice, and peas in a stout stone jar.

  2. Season the vegetables with pepper and salt.

  3. Pour in 3 quarts of cold water.

  4. Fit a close cover on the jar, sealing the edges with a paste of flour and water.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 6 hours without opening.

  2. 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. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Cucumber + asparagustop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together203 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together734 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Asparagus + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 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 main meaty body and savory flavor as it slowly cooks in the liquid.
Sausage meat
Adds fat and seasoning that enrich the broth during the long slow bake.
Raw rice
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during the long, gentle cooking.
Green peas
Contribute sweetness and soft texture to the finished stew.
Raw tomatoes
Add acidity and body that blend into the broth as they break down.

The step that matters

Sealing the cover. The flour and water paste must close the jar tightly so steam stays inside. If it leaks, the liquid reduces and the contents can dry out over the six-hour bake.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, onion, tomato, asparagus, carrot, rice):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, onion, tomato, asparagus, carrot, rice. 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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