Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Beef, Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the beef into neat slices and set aside.
Boil the bones and trimmings for at least 2 hours to make stock.
Make the sauce
Melt the butter or fat in a stewpan over medium heat.
Add the onions, carrot, and turnip, and cook until lightly browned.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir, cooking slowly until well browned.
Add the stock, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
Finish and serve
Cool slightly, then add the beef, cover, and cook very gently for about 1.5 hours.
Serve the beef on a hot dish, strain the sauce over it, and garnish with separately cooked vegetable dice.
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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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 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
- Cold roast beef
- Is the meat that is gently warmed and tenderised in the finished stew.
- Butter or clarified dripping
- Fat for frying the vegetables and carries flavour through the base.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce and, when browned, adds colour and a toasty, nutty flavour.
- Onions
- Soften and brown in the fat, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the sauce.
- Stock
- Liquid that forms the body of the sauce and carries savoury flavour from the bones.
The step that matters
Browning the flour. Flour must cook slowly until well browned to lose its raw taste and build colour and nutty flavour. Cooking it too briefly leaves the sauce pale and floury, while overheating it can scorch and taste bitter.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, carrot, turnip, pepper):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Okrafits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, carrot, turnip, 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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