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Stewed Corned Beef, Plain or on Toast

A stew of cold corned beef with onion, celery, sage, and stock, thickened with flour and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stewed Corned Beef, Plain or on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a pot, combine the cold corned beef, onion, celery, and sage.

  2. Cover with stock and bring to a simmer.

  3. Stew for about 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the stew with flour, stirring well.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then serve.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Celery + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold corned beef
Provides the main meat and savory flavor that the stew is built around.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and flavors the stock.
Celery
Contributes aroma and a mild savory background to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, body-rich sauce when stirred in.

The step that matters

Thicken the stew with flour, stirring well. Flour clumps if added without stirring, leaving lumps. Stirring disperses the starch so it can hydrate evenly and thicken the liquid smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, sage, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, sage, flour, 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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