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Cold Meat Stew

A stew made from minced cold beef or mutton, onion, cold water, leftover gravy, optional potatoes, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Cold Meat Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a pot, combine the bones and undesirable bits with cold water and sliced onion.

  2. Cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the liquid and return it to the pot.

Finish the stew

  1. Add the minced meat and leftover gravy, ensuring it's moist.

  2. Cover and heat until almost bubbling.

  3. If using, add sliced cold potatoes and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Add chopped parsley if desired and remove from heat.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Minced beef or mutton
Provides the main body of the stew, as the meat is already cooked and only needs warming.
Leftover gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor, keeping the minced meat from drying out as it heats.
Onion
Contributes aroma and mild sweetness to the stock as it simmers.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, slightly thickening the stew while adding substance.

The step that matters

Heat the meat gently. The meat is already cooked, so it only needs warming until almost bubbling. Boiling it hard toughens the proteins and can leave the meat dry and chewy.

Swap the potato

The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley. 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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