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Spanish Stew

A hearty stew of potatoes, onions, tomatoes, vermicelli, and milk simmered with butter.

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 ↓

Spanish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and add the diced potatoes and onions with a little water.

  2. Cook until the potatoes and onions are tender.

  3. Add the sliced tomatoes and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

  4. Season with pepper and salt, then add the milk and vermicelli.

  5. If necessary, add a little more water and let the mixture simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Potatoes
Soften into the body of the stew, thickening it as they break down slightly.
Spanish onions
Soften and add sweetness and savory depth to the base.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that help form the stew's sauce.
Vermicelli
Adds starch that thickens the liquid and gives the stew body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, mellowing the tomato acidity.

The step that matters

Simmering after adding the milk. Milk can curdle or scorch when boiled hard or left unattended over direct heat. Keeping the mixture at a gentle simmer and stirring helps it stay smooth while the vermicelli cooks through.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, milk, 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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