Name: A Good English Stew
Ingredients: 3 lbs tender rump of beef, cut into 2-inch squares; 1 quart cold broth or gravy; Salt, to taste; Cayenne pepper, to taste; Grated rind of 1 large lemon or 2 small lemons; 1 tablespoon rice flour; ⅓ cup mushroom ketchup; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

A Good English Stew

Ingredients

3 lbs tender rump of beef, cut into 2-inch squares
1 quart cold broth or gravy
Salt, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Grated rind of 1 large lemon or 2 small lemons
1 tablespoon rice flour
⅓ cup mushroom ketchup
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Directions

In a pot, pour the broth over the beef and bring to a boil.
Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste, then reduce to a simmer for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, add the grated lemon rind.
After 30 minutes, mix the rice flour with the mushroom ketchup, lemon juice, and soy sauce until smooth.
Stir the mixture into the stew and cook for an additional 15 minutes 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.

Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,515 recipes

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

Rump of beef: Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow simmering.
Rice flour: Thickens the stew liquid into a smooth, light gravy as it cooks.
Mushroom ketchup: Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the stew.
Lemon rind: Adds bright aromatic citrus oil and a touch of acidity to the stew.

The step that matters

Mixing the rice flour into a smooth slurry before stirring it in. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; whisking it smooth with liquids first lets starch disperse evenly so it thickens the stew without lumps.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, rice, flour, mushroom, ketchup, sauce):

Limefits about as well
Avocadofits about as well
Lemonthe original
Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, rice, flour, mushroom, ketchup, sauce. 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Corned Beef87 recipes

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A Good English Stew