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Potatoes and Mushroom Stew

A hearty stew of potatoes, onions, and mushrooms simmered in butter and water, thickened with cornflour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potatoes and Mushroom Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and wash the potatoes, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Chop the onion.

  3. Skin and wash the mushrooms, then cut them into pieces.

Make the stew

  1. Place the onion in a pot with the potatoes, water, butter, and seasoning.

  2. Cook until the potatoes are about half done.

  3. Add the mushrooms to the pot.

  4. Let all ingredients stew together until tender.

  5. Thicken the liquid with the cornflour.

  6. Bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the stew and, as they cook, release starch that gives body to the liquid.
Mushrooms
Add savoury depth and a tender, meaty texture as they soften in the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cooking liquid.
Allinson cornflour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a glossy, spoonable sauce as it heats.
Spanish onion
Contributes sweetness and aroma as it softens in the pot.

The step that matters

Thicken the liquid with the cornflour. Cornflour must be mixed smoothly into liquid and brought to a boil to gelatinise its starch; added as dry lumps or left unboiled, it stays grainy and the sauce will not thicken properly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, mushroom, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mushroom, butter, 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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