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Stewed Potatoes

A stew of boiled potatoes, bacon, onion, flour, and seasonings, finished with parsley and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes until half cooked.

  3. Cut the potatoes into ½ inch thick slices.

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, fry the minced bacon and chopped onion over medium heat until lightly browned.

  2. Mix the flour with a little water to form a smooth paste.

  3. Stir the paste into the onions and bacon.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and sugar.

  5. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  6. Add the sliced potatoes.

  7. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  8. Stew gently until tender but not broken.

  9. If the sauce reduces too much, add a small quantity of milk to keep the potatoes moist.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Potatoes
Form the body of the stew, becoming tender while holding their shape when cooked gently.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce that coats the potatoes.
Bacon fat
Adds richness and savory flavor from browning the bacon and onion.
Onion
Softens and browns, adding sweetness and aroma to the sauce base.
Milk
Adds moisture to the sauce if it reduces too much during stewing.

The step that matters

Stew gently until tender but not broken. Rapid boiling can break the potato slices apart and make the sauce cloudy or uneven. Gentle heat lets the starch in the potatoes soften while the slices keep their shape.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, pepper, sugar, parsley, milk):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, pepper, sugar, parsley, milk. 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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