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Parsnip Stew

A hearty stew of salt pork, potatoes, and parsnips thickened with milk and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the salt pork in water until tender.

  2. Add the diced potatoes and parsnips to the pot.

  3. Stir in the milk and flour to thicken.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt as desired.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor to the broth as it cooks.
Potatoes
Soften into the stew and add body and starch to the broth.
Parsnips
Soften as they cook, adding mild sweetness to the stew.
Milk
Adds richness and moisture to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it is stirred in with the milk.

The step that matters

Stirring in the milk and flour. Flour clumps if added to hot liquid without being mixed smoothly first, and milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard. Whisk the flour into the milk first, then stir gently over moderate heat until the stew thickens.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, potato, milk, flour, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato, milk, flour, pepper. 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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