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Hodge-podge

A hearty stew of beef, beer, and root vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Hodge-podge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Combine beef, beer, and water in a large stewpan.

  2. Simmer for a few minutes, then skim off any foam.

  3. Add chopped vegetables and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Stew gently until meat is tender, about 3 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the stew with butter and flour before serving.

  2. Serve with additional turnips and carrots, or spinach and celery.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Becomes tender and flavourful through long, gentle stewing, with collagen melting into the broth.
Table beer
Adds malty, slightly bitter flavour to the broth as it reduces during stewing.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften into the stew base.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stew as they cook through.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture after long simmering.
Flour
Thickens the stew liquid into a richer, cling-textured sauce when combined with butter.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam after the initial simmer. Foam carries impurities and proteins from the meat that can make the broth cloudy and taste bitter or scummy. Removing it early keeps the stew clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, beer, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, beer, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, butter. 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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