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German Meat and Vegetable Stew

A layered oven-baked stew of beef, potatoes, and assorted vegetables seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

German Meat and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Slice the potatoes as you would for potato salad.

Layer

  1. Butter a casserole dish and layer the bottom with potatoes, adding salt to taste.

  2. Season the diced beef with salt, pepper, and chopped onion, then layer it on top of the potatoes.

  3. Add a layer of finely chopped celery root, carrot, green leek, and parsley over the meat.

  4. Continue layering potatoes, beef, and vegetables until the dish is full, finishing with a layer of potatoes.

Stew and serve

  1. Pour 1 cup of water or bouillon over the layers and cover the dish tightly.

  2. Stew slowly in the oven for about 2 hours.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the base and layers that soften and absorb the cooking liquid as the stew cooks.
Beef (top round)
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it softens into the meat and vegetable layers.
Celery root
Contributes earthy flavor and a tender texture after slow cooking.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and color while softening during the long stew.
Leek
Contributes a mild onion-like aroma and softens into the layers.

The step that matters

Cover the dish tightly before stewing. A tight cover traps steam so the water or bouillon keeps the layers moist, letting the beef become tender rather than dry during the long, slow bake.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, beef, pepper, celery, carrot, leek, parsley):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, beef, pepper, celery, carrot, leek, parsley. 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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