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Squirkel Stew

A stew of jointed squirrels simmered with onion, butter, stock, sherry, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squirkel Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the squirrel

  1. Season the jointed squirrels with salt and pepper, then brown them in butter.

Simmer

  1. Add the minced onion, browned flour, cloves, stock, and parsley.

  2. Cook for about 1¼ hours.

Finish

  1. Add the sherry just 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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Squirrels
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow simmer.
Butter
Browns the meat and adds richness and a toasted flavor.
Browned flour
Thickens the cooking liquid and adds a nutty, toasted taste.
Stock
Forms the cooking liquid that carries flavor and keeps the meat moist.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the finished stew.
Minced onion
Adds savory aromatic flavor as it softens into the liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the sherry just before serving. Sherry's acidity and volatile aroma compounds fade with prolonged heat. Adding it late keeps the stew's flavor bright rather than flat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, sherry, flour, clove, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, sherry, flour, clove, 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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