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Dutch Stew

A hearty stew of mutton or beef with cabbage, potatoes, onions, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Dutch Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pot

  1. Heat the dripping in a deep pot until very hot.

  2. Add the finely chopped onions and fry until golden.

Cook the meat

  1. Wash the mutton and add it to the pot with water, covering quickly to retain steam.

  2. Cook for about 1 hour.

Add the vegetables

  1. Wash the cabbage, remove withered leaves, and cut into 4 or 8 pieces.

  2. Soak the cabbage in salted water for a short time.

  3. Wash, skin, and slice the potatoes.

  4. Add the cabbage and potatoes to the pot with the mutton.

  5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook until everything is tender.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  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

Mutton or beef
Provides the main savoury flavour, and its fat enriches the broth as it cooks.
Onions
Frying until golden builds sweetness and savoury depth in the base of the stew.
Cabbage
Softens during long cooking and adds body and mild sweetness to the stew.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, thickening the broth and adding starch.

The step that matters

Heat the dripping until very hot before frying the onions. A very hot fat sears the onions quickly so they turn golden rather than steaming and going soft and pale, which builds the stew's base flavour.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, onion, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, onion, 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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