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Dry Stew

A simple pork and potato stew cooked with minimal liquid, seasoned with pepper, salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Dry Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place slices of pork in a frying pan and fill with chipped potatoes.

  2. Pour a little water over the ingredients and cover tightly.

  3. Cook until the pork begins to fry.

  4. Loosen the mixture from the bottom with a wide knife.

  5. Add more water as needed until fully cooked.

  6. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and a bit of butter.

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

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

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

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

  4. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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

Slices of pork
Provides the main protein and savory flavor as it fries in the pan.
Chipped potatoes
Bulk of the dish; they soften and absorb cooking juices, adding body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavor at the end.

The step that matters

Loosen the mixture from the bottom with a wide knife. Food left still on the hot pan base can stick and scorch before the pork browns. Loosening it regularly lets the mixture cook evenly and release browned bits into the dish.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Onionfits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, 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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