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A Good English Stew

A hearty beef stew simmered with broth, lemon rind, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

A Good English Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a large pot, combine the beef and broth, then bring to a boil.

  2. Add salt and cayenne pepper, then reduce heat to simmer for 2 hours.

  3. Stir in the grated lemon rind and simmer for another 30 minutes.

  4. Mix rice flour with mushroom ketchup, lemon juice, and soy sauce, then stir into the pot.

  5. Cook for an additional 15 minutes until ready to serve.

Finish and serve

  1. Optionally, add port or white wine for flavor and serve with fried forcemeat balls.

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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

Beef rump
Becomes tender through long simmering, giving the stew its main body and chew.
Rice flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly gravy-like sauce.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the broth.
Lemon rind
Adds aromatic citrus oils that brighten the rich, long-cooked meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that lifts and balances the savory richness of the stew.

The step that matters

Thickening with rice flour. Rice flour must be mixed smoothly with the liquid types before stirring in; added dry or in lumps, it clumps and leaves an uneven texture. Keep the pot at a gentle simmer so the starch thickens evenly without scorching.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, rice, flour, mushroom, ketchup, sauce):

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, rice, flour, mushroom, ketchup, sauce. 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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