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 ↓
Beef Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Choose a slice of beef from the top of a round, including some marrow bone.
Heat the marrow in a pan and add the beef, cut into portion-sized pieces.
Cook the beef, turning constantly, until browned.
Make the stew
Place the unbrowned meat and bone in a pot with cold water, then add the browned meat.
Rinse the pan to capture all the brown gravy and add it to the pot.
Cover and let simmer for 1 hour.
Slice the carrots, onions, and potatoes, then parboil for 5 minutes.
Drain, cool in cold water, and add to the stew.
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.
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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 flavor and, as it simmers, tender, savory body to the stew.
- Potatoes
- Absorb the broth and thicken it slightly as their starch breaks down during cooking.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and firm texture that holds up through simmering.
- Onions
- Add savory depth and aroma that builds the base flavor of the broth.
The step that matters
Browning the beef. Turning the meat until deeply browned creates flavorful Maillard compounds and the brown gravy in the pan, which give the broth its richness. Pale meat leaves the stew tasting flat.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, potato, rice, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Parsnipfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, potato, rice, pepper. 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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