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Parsnip Stew

A stew of salt pork, parsnips, and potatoes simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the pork and vegetables

  1. Boil the salt pork for 1.5 hours.

  2. Peel and cut the parsnips into quarters lengthwise, then add them to the pot.

  3. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  4. Add a few potatoes and continue boiling until the potatoes are soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Ensure there is about ½ cup of liquid remaining 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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Parsnip + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

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

  3. Pork + parsniptop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together306 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

Salt pork
Renders fat and salty, savory flavor into the broth as it simmers.
Parsnips
Add sweetness and body to the stew as they soften during long boiling.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and giving the stew body.

The step that matters

Adding the potatoes. Potatoes added too early or boiled too long break down and turn mushy. Adding them after the parsnips and simmering only until soft keeps their texture while still thickening the broth.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, potato. 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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