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Stew

A stew of potatoes, sweet potato, tomato, bone jelly, beef jelly, and sliced beef, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Stew

Why it works: Potato and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and slice the white and sweet potatoes.

Cook

  1. Boil the potatoes in water with salt and bone jelly.

  2. Add the sliced tomato when the potatoes are almost done.

  3. Stir in the beef jelly and the sliced beef.

  4. Cook until everything is heated through.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  2. Sweet potato + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together359 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Sweet potato + beeftop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

White potatoes
Starch that softens as it cooks and gives the stew body.
Sweet potato
Adds natural sweetness and extra starch that thickens the stew.
Sliced tomato
Adds acidity and fresh, bright flavour to the stew.
Beef
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and protein.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, beef. 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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