Name: Cold Meat and Tomato Stew
Ingredients: 1 pint cold water; 1 cup cold meat (beef or mutton), cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 cup tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned); 1 onion, thinly sliced (optional); 1 carrot, thinly sliced (optional)

Why it works: Tomato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,606 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cold Meat and Tomato Stew

Ingredients

1 pint cold water
1 cup cold meat (beef or mutton), cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned)
1 onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1 carrot, thinly sliced (optional)

Directions

Make the broth

Crack the bones of the cold meat and add them to a pot with cold water.
Stew gently for 45 minutes, then strain the liquid to obtain 1 cup.

Stew and finish

In a pot, combine the strained liquid with the chopped tomatoes and prepared meat.
Add sliced onion and carrot if desired, cover, and simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
If the stew is too thin, thicken it slightly with browned flour.

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.

Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + tomatotop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,438 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat: Provides the main body and savory flavor of the stew as it cooks.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and a bright tomato flavor to the liquid.
Browned flour (in the method): Thickens the stew slightly and adds a toasted, nutty note.

The step that matters

Simmering the strained broth gently. Gentle simmering keeps the meat tender and the liquid clear. A hard boil toughens meat proteins and can make the stew cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, tomato, carrot):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Okrafits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, tomato, carrot. 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.

Meatless Tomato Soup23 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Carrot Soup134 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Cold Meat and Tomato Stew