Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stew
Add the meat to a stewpan and cover with water. Stir until it boils, removing any scum that rises.
Cover the stewpan tightly and let it simmer gently for three hours, skimming occasionally.
Before serving, add salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare the onions
For the onions, cut off the ends and blanch in boiling water for 20 minutes. Drain, cool, and remove the outer skins.
In a small saucepan, combine butter, sugar, pepper, salt, and enough stock to cover the onions. Boil gently until tender.
Remove the onions and reduce the gravy quickly until it becomes a glaze.
Coat the onions in the glaze and baste them every ten minutes until ready to serve.
Serve
Place the meat on a dish and pour the gravy over it. Garnish with cow-heel and carrots.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Provides the main body of the stew and, as it simmers, flavours the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the glaze a smooth, glossy finish.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid that cooks the onions and reduces into the glaze.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the glaze brown and become sticky as it reduces.
The step that matters
Reducing the gravy into a glaze. If the gravy is reduced too slowly or too long, it can scorch or turn bitter; reducing quickly over steady heat concentrates the sugars and gelatin into a glossy coating.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, carrot, butter, egg, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, carrot, butter, egg, sugar. 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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