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Brunswick Stew

A hearty stew of chicken or squirrels, bacon, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, butter beans, lemon, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans 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

  1. In a large pot, combine the chicken or squirrels and bacon with 6 quarts of water.

  2. Cook until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the meat from the bones.

  4. Return the meat to the pot, adding more water if necessary.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Add the prepared tomatoes, potatoes, corn, butter beans, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

  2. Stew until all ingredients are cooked through.

  3. Season with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt, stirring carefully to prevent burning.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken or squirrels
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long simmering and gives the stew its body.
Bacon
Renders fat into the broth, adding savory richness and smoky flavor.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, tangy flavor that brightens the long-simmered stew.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and thicken the stew slightly as their starch releases.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the stew.
Butter beans
Add starch and creamy texture that help body the stew.

The step that matters

Stirring while the stew finishes. Starchy vegetables and tomatoes settle and scorch on the bottom of a pot during a long simmer, so stirring carefully prevents burning and keeps the flavor clean.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, potato, corn, butter, beans, 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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