Name: Stewed Beef and Bice
Ingredients: 1 lb leg of beef; 2 oz rice; 1 large onion, sliced; 1 pint hot water; 1 teaspoon mixed herbs, or to taste; Salt and pepper to taste; Vinegar

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 ↓

Stewed Beef and Bice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the beef into nice pieces and dip them in vinegar.
Place the beef in a stewpan or jar with the sliced onion and herbs.
Pour the hot water over the ingredients and cover tightly.

Stew and finish

Stew for 2 to 4 hours, or until the beef is tender.
Wash the rice and add it during the last hour of cooking.
Stir often to prevent burning and season to taste just before serving.

Optional brown stew

For a brown stew, fry the onion in ½ oz of dripping before adding.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,265 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 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

Beef: Provides the main substance; slow stewing over long cooking turns it tender.
Rice: Thickens the liquid slightly as its starch releases during the final hour of cooking.
Onion: Adds sweetness and savoury depth to the stewing liquid.
Vinegar: Acidity on the beef surface helps tenderise the meat before stewing.

The step that matters

Stew gently with a tight cover. Slow, low-temperature stewing with a tight lid breaks down the tough connective tissue in beef while keeping moisture in. Stirring often guards against the bottom scorching while the rice cooks.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits about as well
Onionthe original
Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, rice, pepper, vinegar. 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.

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Corned Beef87 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

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Stewed Beef and Bice