Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓
Economical Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the cold beef or mutton and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Dredge the meat with a little flour.
Place the meat in a stew pan with cold gravy or a little water.
Slice the onion finely and add it to the pan along with a few potatoes.
Stew and finish
Stew gently until the meat is tender.
If there is no cold gravy, add a little butter rolled in flour a few minutes before serving.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 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
- Cold beef or mutton
- Provides the meat that becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
- Flour
- Coats the meat and, with butter, thickens the stew liquid.
- Butter
- Rolled in flour and added near the end, it enriches and thickens the sauce.
- Potatoes
- Soften during stewing and add starch that helps thicken the liquid.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth as it softens into the stewing liquid.
The step that matters
Stew gently until the meat is tender. Cold, cooked meat is already done, so the goal is slow, gentle heat that softens connective tissue without toughening the fibres. A hard boil can dry and firm the meat.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, flour, potato, butter):
- Chivefits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Carrotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, flour, potato, butter. 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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