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Beef Stewed

A stew of roast beef, potatoes, onions, and tomato ketchup, thickened with cornstarch and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Beef Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat and onions

  1. Prepare the forcemeat by mixing dried herbs, an egg, chopped bacon, and bread crumbs.

  2. Cook the forcemeat in a small pan.

  3. Place the cooked forcemeat in a jar and stand it in water.

  4. Fry the onions in butter until browned.

  5. Add the fried onions to the gravy in a stew pan.

Prepare the potatoes and beef

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Mash the boiled potatoes.

  3. Form a wall of mashed potatoes on a serving dish, leaving space for the meat.

  4. Remove the roast beef from the tin intact.

  5. Cut a hole in the center of the roast beef.

  6. Fill the hole with the prepared forcemeat.

  7. Tie the roast beef with kitchen twine.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Make a gravy by adding seasoning and port wine.

  2. Thicken the gravy with cornstarch.

  3. Heat the roast beef in the gravy until hot.

  4. Place the roast beef in the center of the mashed potatoes.

  5. Remove the twine.

  6. Pour the gravy around the roast beef.

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. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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

Roast beef
Forms the main body of the dish and provides the meat for the stew.
Potatoes
Mashed to form a starchy wall that frames and supports the meat on the plate.
Eggs (in the method)
Binds the forcemeat so it holds together when cooked.
Butter
Fat that browns the onions, adding color and rich flavor.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor to the gravy.
Cornstarch
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat and potatoes.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with cornstarch. Cornstarch needs to be heated in liquid to swell and thicken. If it is added to gravy that is not hot enough or is not stirred well, it can stay lumpy or thin. Adding it gradually while stirring keeps the gravy smooth.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, ketchup, onion, vinegar, pepper, port wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, ketchup, onion, vinegar, pepper, port wine. 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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