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Ox Heart Stewed

A stew made from ox heart, onions, celery, potatoes, and catsup or walnut pickles, finished with a butter‑flour paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ox Heart Stewed

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ox heart into thin, long pieces.

  2. Place the pieces in a stew pot with salt and enough liquid to cover them.

  3. Skim off any scum or blood that rises to the surface.

Stew and finish

  1. Add the onions, celery, and parboiled potatoes to the pot.

  2. Stew gently until all ingredients are tender and well combined.

  3. Before serving, mix the butter with enough flour to form a paste and add the catsup or walnut pickles.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox heart
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle stewing.
Onions
Soften during stewing and add sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Potatoes
Absorb cooking liquid and soften, thickening the stew and adding body.
Butter and flour paste
Stirred in before serving to thicken the stew and add richness.
Catsup or walnut pickles
Adds acidity and tangy flavor that balances the rich meat.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface. Scum and blood rising during the first simmer can cloud the broth and taint its flavor. Removing them early keeps the stew clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, potato, butter, flour):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, potato, butter, flour. 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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