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Ieisit Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, potatoes, onions, and spices simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ieisit Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into nice-sized pieces.

  2. Slice or chop the onions and add them to a saucepan with the meat and boiling water.

Make the stew

  1. Simmer gently for 1 hour, skimming well.

  2. Slice the parboiled potatoes or leave them whole and place them on top of the meat.

  3. Add salt and pepper, and stew for 1 hour longer or until tender.

  4. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.

Serve

  1. Once done, season to taste and serve the potatoes around a hot dish with the meat, onions, and gravy in the middle.

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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 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

Mutton
Provides the meat that becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, thickening the gravy slightly as they cook.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they soften.

The step that matters

Stir occasionally to prevent burning. Starchy potatoes and onions settle near the bottom of the pan and can scorch while the stew simmers. Gentle, regular stirring keeps heat even and protects the gravy's flavour.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, 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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