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A beef stew with onions, flour, broth, tomato sauce, herbs, garlic, served with Brussels sprouts and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a stewpan, brown the chopped beef in butter.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook until well browned.

  3. Stir in the flour, then pour in the white broth and tomato sauce.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, add sweet herbs and crushed garlic, and cook for 25 minutes.

  5. Serve the beef garnished with cooked Brussels sprouts and celery.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 protein and meaty texture as it browns and simmers.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavour as they brown in the butter.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a richer, smoother sauce.
White broth
Forms the main cooking liquid and carries the flavour through the stew.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and savoury depth to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and helps the beef and onions brown well.

The step that matters

Browning the beef and onions. Browning creates deep flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pan or stopping early leaves the stew tasting flat and grey, so brown in batches until the surfaces are well coloured.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, onion, flour, tomato, sauce, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, onion, flour, tomato, sauce, 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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