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Hunters’ Stew

A hearty stew of meat, potatoes, and vegetables simmered in water or soup with flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hunters’ Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the meat into small chunks, about 1 inch square.

  2. Scrape and chop the potatoes and other vegetables.

  3. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper together and rub the flour mixture onto the meat.

Cook

  1. Place the potatoes and other vegetables in a pot.

  2. Add ½ cup of clean water or soup to the pot.

  3. Add the meat to the pot.

  4. Ensure there is just enough water to cover the food.

  5. Place the pot in the embers.

  6. Simmer for about 1½ hours until the potatoes are cooked.

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

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

  2. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

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

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Meat
Provides the savoury core of the stew, becoming tender as it simmers slowly in liquid.
Potatoes
Break down during simmering to thicken the broth and give the stew body.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the cooking liquid into a richer, smoother sauce.

The step that matters

Ensure there is just enough water to cover the food. Too little liquid lets the food scorch on the pot base, while too much dilutes the flavour and thins the stew. Covering the food keeps heat even as it simmers.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, 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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