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Hot Pot

A slow-cooked stew of beef, mutton, potatoes, onions, and water seasoned with salt, pepper, and flour.

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 ↓

Hot Pot

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and mix with salt, pepper, and flour.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer half the meat in a pie dish, followed by half the sliced onions and half the parboiled, quartered potatoes.

  2. Repeat the layers, then pour the water over the top.

  3. Cover the dish to keep it moist and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 3 hours.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow bake.
Mutton
Provides richer meat flavor and fat that enriches the juices during slow cooking.
Potatoes
Form the starchy layer that absorbs cooking juices and thickens the dish as it bakes.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and mingle with the meat juices.
Flour
Lightly coats the meat, helping to thicken the cooking liquid into a sauce.

The step that matters

Covering the dish during the slow bake. Keeping the lid on traps steam so the meat stays moist and the water cannot evaporate away. Without cover, the meat can dry out and toughen over the 2 to 3 hour bake.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, potato, pepper, flour):

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, potato, pepper, flour. 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.

More hot pot recipes

Mutton 8Lancashire 4Beef 3 See all 11 →

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