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Chili Con Caeot

A stew of beef, spaghetti, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and water seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bay leaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chili Con Caeot

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine chopped beef, spaghetti, tomatoes, bay leaf, onions, red peppers, and water.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Cook for three hours, adding water as needed to maintain a total of 1½ quarts when done.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Chopped beef
Provides the main protein and savoury meaty body of the dish.
Spaghetti
Releases starch as it cooks, helping thicken the liquid and give body to the dish.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid, building the tomato base that the other ingredients simmer in.
Onions
Soften during long cooking and add sweetness and aromatic depth to the sauce.
Red peppers
Add sweetness, colour and a fresh vegetable flavour that mellows during simmering.

The step that matters

Maintaining the liquid over three hours. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates flavour, so adding water as needed keeps the dish from drying out or scorching while the beef and spaghetti become tender and the starch thickens the sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, 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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