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Potatoes and Mushroom Stew

A simple stew of potatoes, mushrooms, onion, butter, and seasonings, thickened with cornflour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Potatoes and Mushroom Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, wash, and cut the potatoes into pieces.

  2. Chop the onion.

  3. Clean the mushrooms and cut them into pieces.

Stew

  1. Place the chopped onion and potatoes in a pot with 1 pint of water, 2 tablespoons butter, and seasoning.

  2. Cook until the potatoes are half done.

  3. Add the mushrooms to the pot.

  4. Stew until all ingredients are tender.

Thicken and serve

  1. Thicken the liquid with cornflour.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Serve.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk of the stew and soften as they cook, thickening the broth slightly.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the broth, carrying flavor through the stew.
Mushrooms
Contribute savory, earthy flavor and a tender texture as they stew.
Cornflour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, glossy sauce when heated.

The step that matters

Thicken the liquid with cornflour. Cornflour must be mixed with a little cold liquid before adding, otherwise it clumps. Starch thickens properly only once it is heated to a boil, so the stew should be brought to a boil after adding it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, mushroom, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mushroom, butter, 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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