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A simple meat stew made with pieces of meat, dripping, onions, flour, water, seasoning, and vinegar or apple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,226 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Meat Dishes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat the dripping in a saucepan.

  2. Fry the onions until brown.

  3. Stir in the flour with an iron spoon.

Thicken and simmer

  1. Gradually blend in the water and stir until it boils.

  2. Add the seasoning and vinegar (or apple).

  3. Simmer gently for one hour.

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 + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

  3. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Small pieces of meat
Supplies the main substance and savoury body of the stew.
Dripping (fat)
Carries the heat for frying and adds rich flavour to the base.
Onions
Browning in fat builds sweetness and deep savoury flavour.
Flour
Its starch thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich gravy when boiled.

The step that matters

Gradually blend in the water and stir until it boils. Adding the water slowly while stirring lets each flour granule separate and hydrate, which prevents lumps. The starch then thickens as the mixture comes to the boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, vinegar. 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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