Name: Burdwan Stew
Ingredients: 1 roasted or boiled fowl, cut into pieces; 2 ladlefuls of soup; 24 anchovies; ⅓ cup white wine; 2 tablespoons melted butter; boiled or roasted onions; pickled oysters; cayenne pepper to taste; juice of 1 Seville orange or lime

Why it works: White wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Burdwan Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the chicken pieces and soup in a silver stewpan.
Add anchovies, white wine, melted butter, onions, pickled oysters, and cayenne pepper, then stir and heat through.
Add the juice of Seville orange or lime 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.

White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,402 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,535 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,184 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies: Add a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the stew's flavour.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma, lifting the richness of the butter and broth.
Melted butter: Adds fat and a silky, rich mouthfeel to the stew.
Pickled oysters: Contribute a sharp, tangy brininess that stands out against the rich base.
Seville orange or lime juice: Adds bright acidity that balances the richness and spice.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, butter, onion, oyster, pepper):

Lemonfits better
Plumfits better
Grapefits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, butter, onion, oyster, 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.