Why it works: Tomato and turnip work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 463 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenol, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Tomatoes Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Make the gravy
Make 4 cups of good gravy with stock or gravy in a saucepan.
Simmer the gravy, add salt and cayenne, then thicken with flour.
Add the tomatoes and serve when hot.
Cook the turnips
Peel the turnips and boil them in salted water until just tender.
Drain the turnips in a colander, then return them to the dry saucepan.
Let the turnips stand for a minute before serving.
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.
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Tomato + turniptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together463 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenol (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and fresh flavour of the stewed dish.
- Turnips
- Supply the bulk of the dish and a mild, slightly sweet vegetable flavour when tender.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the simmering gravy so it coats the tomatoes and turnips.
- Stock or gravy
- Forms the savoury liquid base that the dish is built on.
The step that matters
Thickening the gravy with flour. Flour must be cooked while simmering, otherwise it stays starchy and raw-tasting. Adding it gradually and simmering lets the starch swell and thicken the liquid smoothly without lumps.
“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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