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Stewing, Hashing, &C

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stewing, Hashing, &C

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop and fry the boiled cabbage until hot.

  2. Fry the onion slices until tender.

  3. Add gravy to the pan, stir until boiling, then add the beef and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Transfer the beef and gravy to a dish and top with the cabbage.

  5. If desired, omit the onion.

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 + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

  5. Allspice + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, onion, beef, pepper, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, onion, beef, pepper, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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