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Exeter Stew

A hearty beef stew from Exeter with onions, vinegar, and flour, served with savory balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Exeter Stew

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat from the beef and cut it into 8 to 10 pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a stewing jar with the vinegar and put it in a cool oven (300°F/150°C).

Make the gravy

  1. In a frying pan, heat the dripping and fry the sliced onions and flour until brown.

  2. Add the water to the pan, bring to a boil, and pour it over the meat in the jar.

Finish and cook

  1. Season with salt and pepper, then cover the jar closely.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Lean beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow, covered cooking.
Flour
Browned with the onions and then mixed with liquid, it thickens the gravy.
Onions
Frying them until brown adds sweetness and savoury depth to the gravy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps tenderise the meat.
Dripping
Fat for frying the onions and flour, carrying flavour into the gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the onions and flour until brown. Browning the flour and onions builds deep flavour and helps thicken the gravy. Stop before they scorch, because burnt flour tastes bitter and spoils the stew.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, vinegar, pepper, parsley. 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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