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Stewed Chops

Stewed chops simmered in butter, flour, and gravy, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim excess fat from the chops.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and mix well.

  3. Pour in the gravy and stir until it boils.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the chops and simmer gently for one hour.

  2. Arrange the chops in a circle on a plate.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil, season, and pour over the chops.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

Chops
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender during long, gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries flavour into the gravy base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells when heated in the melted butter.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid that keeps the chops moist while they cook.

The step that matters

Simmer the chops gently for one hour. Gentle simmering lets the meat's connective tissue soften slowly, keeping the chops tender. Vigorous boiling toughens muscle fibres and can break up the gravy, so keep the heat low and the liquid barely bubbling.

“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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