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Beetroot and Onion Stew

A stew of boiled beetroot and fried onions simmered with butter, flour, milk, vinegar, sugar, and salt, served over mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beetroot and Onion Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the beetroots until tender, then slice them.

  2. Peel and slice the onions, then fry them in the butter without browning.

Make the stew

  1. Stir in the flour and milk, and bring to a boil.

  2. Gradually stir in the vinegar, salt, and sugar, then add the beetroot.

  3. Simmer slowly for one hour.

Serve

  1. Make a border of mashed potatoes on a hot dish, garnish with parsley.

  2. Place the beetroot and onion mixture in the center and 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beetroot + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Beetroot + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beetroot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,261 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

Beetroots
Give the stew its main body, colour and earthy sweetness as they soften.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften in the butter.
Butter
Carries the onion flavour and adds richness when frying.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the beetroot.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and adds richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Bringing the flour and milk to a boil. Flour needs to be heated fully in the liquid to thicken and lose its raw taste. Stirring while adding the milk keeps lumps from forming, giving a smooth sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beetroot, butter, sugar, milk, vinegar, flour, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beetroot, butter, sugar, milk, vinegar, flour, 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.

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