Name: Brunswick Stew
Ingredients: 1 shank of beef; 1 loaf of square bread; 1 quart potatoes, cooked and mashed; 1 quart cooked butter beans; 1 quart raw corn; 1 quart raw tomatoes, peeled and chopped; salt and pepper to taste; 2-3 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Beans and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,713 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew base

Place the shank of beef in a large pot and cover with water to make a soup base.
Cook the beef for several hours until tender.
Remove the beef, shred it, and discard any bones and gristle.

Finish the stew

Return the shredded beef to the pot and add the mashed potatoes, butter beans, corn, and chopped tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Just before serving, stir in 2-3 tablespoons 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.

Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + corntop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together938 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 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

Beef shank: Breaks down during long cooking to give the broth body and tender meat.
Potatoes: Break down when mashed, thickening the stew and giving it a creamy body.
Butter beans: Add starchy body and a soft, creamy texture to the stew.
Corn: Adds sweetness and a fresh, bright flavor to the stew.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and fresh flavor that balances the rich beef and butter.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

“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.