Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Stewed Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the beef
In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the beef and brown it on all sides.
Remove the beef and place two or three skewers at the bottom of the pan.
Return the beef to the pan, preventing it from sticking with the skewers.
Add enough water to half cover the meat and cover the pan.
Stew slowly until the meat is tender.
Make the gravy and serve
Remove the meat and thicken the gravy with flour and a little butter.
Season the gravy with salt and ketchup.
Add the boiled carrots and turnips to the gravy for a few minutes.
Arrange the vegetables around the beef before serving.
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.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Flour + turniptop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,874 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,533 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brisket or rump of beef
- Slow stewing breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.
- Butter
- Fat for browning the beef and adds richness to the gravy.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity to season the gravy.
The step that matters
Stew slowly until the meat is tender. Low, gentle heat with the lid on lets tough connective tissue slowly soften into gelatin. Boiling hard can toughen the muscle fibres and leave the meat dry and stringy.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, meat, flour, ketchup, turnip):
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Horseradishfits about as well
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, meat, flour, ketchup, turnip. 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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