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Hunters' Stew

A hearty stew of quail or doves simmered with vegetables and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Hunters' Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the quail (or doves) well and place them in a large porcelain-lined stew pan with a tight-fitting cover.

  2. Pour in 1 gallon of water and add the red pepper, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and bacon.

Stew

  1. Cover and boil for at least 1 hour.

  2. Add the potatoes, tomatoes, onion, celery, corn, and butter.

  3. Add more water if necessary to prevent burning and stew for at least 1.5 hours.

  4. Adjust the amount of vegetables according to your taste.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. 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

Quail (or doves)
Provides the meat that gives the stew its main body and flavor.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth as they break down and add starchy body to the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savory depth that balances the rich broth.
Green corn
Adds sweetness and a fresh, starchy texture to the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the broth.

The step that matters

Add more water to prevent burning. A long, covered simmer can reduce the liquid and scorch the bottom of the pot, so checking and adding water keeps the stew from sticking and tasting burnt.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quail, pepper, potato, tomato, celery, corn, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against quail, pepper, potato, tomato, celery, corn, 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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