Name: A Beef Stew
Ingredients: 2 to 3 pounds rump of beef; 1 quart broth; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 1 large lemon; 2 tablespoons Harvey's sauce; 1 tablespoon flour; Ketchup to taste; 2 glasses Madeira, or 1 glass sherry, or port (optional)

Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

A Beef Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the beef into 2 to 3-inch pieces, removing all fat and skin.
Place the beef in a stewpan and add the broth.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer for 2 hours.
Finely shred the lemon and add it to the gravy.
After 20 minutes, stir in the Harvey's sauce, lemon juice, flour, and ketchup.
If desired, add the Madeira, sherry, or port after 15 minutes.
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.

Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,435 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump of beef: Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, gentle simmering.
Flour: Thickens the broth into a gravy as it cooks.
Lemon: Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy.
Harvey's sauce: Adds savory depth and tang to the gravy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, sauce, flour, ketchup, sherry):

Lemonthe original
Limefits about as well
Raisinfits about as well
Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, sauce, flour, ketchup, sherry. 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.