Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓
Scotch Collop
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the steak
Heat the butter or dripping in a stew pan until hot.
Add the steak pieces and fry until crisp on both sides.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir until well mixed.
Make the stew
Add the chopped onions, pepper, salt, and water, then stir until it boils.
Reduce heat and let it simmer slowly for 1.5 hours.
Cut the meat into small pieces and return to the stew pan with a cup of water, then simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the potatoes and finish
Pour boiling water over the sliced potatoes in a basin and cover.
After 15 minutes of stewing, drain the potatoes and add them to the stew pan on top of the meat.
Add the onions, pepper, and salt, and cook until the potatoes are tender.
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.
-
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shoulder steak
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
- Butter or dripping
- Fat that carries the heat and helps the steak brown and crisp.
- Flour
- Coats the meat and thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy.
- Potatoes
- Starch that softens and adds body and substance to the stew.
- Onions
- Sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the liquid.
The step that matters
Simmer slowly for 1.5 hours. A gentle simmer breaks down the connective tissue in shoulder steak, making it tender without drying it out. A hard boil toughens the meat and can scorch the flour-thickened gravy on the bottom of the pan.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, potato):
- Chivefits better
- Spinachfits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, potato. 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.
You might also like
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Potato Rolls78 recipes
Potato Chips53 recipes
Sweet Potato Croquettes53 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.