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Stewed Beef

A slow‑cooked beef stew flavored with water, broth, vinegar, herbs, onions, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stewed Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Place the beef in a deep kettle with water, broth, vinegar, parsley, cloves, marjoram, salt, and pepper.

  2. Let it marinate overnight, turning occasionally if it is warm.

Stew

  1. The next day, bring to a boil, then simmer for 4–5 hours.

  2. Add the chopped onions during the last hour of cooking.

  3. If more liquid is needed while stewing, add broth or water.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the meat and mix butter and flour into the strained liquid.

  2. Add mushroom ketchup to taste and pour over the meat before serving.

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. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef round
Long simmering turns this tough cut tender and gives the stew its body.
Vinegar
Its acidity during marinating helps tenderise the meat and brightens the flavour.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding savoury depth to the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the strained cooking liquid into a light gravy when mixed with butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that rounds out the gravy along with the flour.

The step that matters

Simmering the beef gently. A rolling boil toughens the muscle fibres, while a slow simmer over several hours breaks down connective tissue so the beef becomes tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, parsley, clove, marjoram, pepper, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, parsley, clove, marjoram, 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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