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Browx Stew

A beef stew with carrots, onions, cloves, allspice, tomato ketchup, and optional sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Browx Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the beef

  1. Brown the beef in a hot skillet with butter.

  2. Gradually stir in the flour until browned.

Simmer

  1. Add the carrot, onions, cloves, allspice, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cover with boiling water and simmer for 3 hours.

  3. Before serving, stir in the tomato ketchup and sherry, if 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Flour
Browns with the butter and beef and thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the stew.
Tomato ketchup
Adds acidity and sweetness, rounding out the flavor of the gravy.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the flour until browned. Adding flour gradually to the hot fat and beef lets it toast and coat the pieces evenly, so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps and gives the gravy a richer, nutty colour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, carrot, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, carrot, clove, allspice, 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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