Name: Stewed Squirrels
Ingredients: 3 grey squirrels, skinned and cleaned; ½ pound fat salt pork, cut into small pieces; 1 onion, sliced; 12 ears corn, cut from the cob; 6 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced; 3 tablespoons butter, rolled in flour; parsley, to taste; water, enough to cover squirrels

Why it works: Corn and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Stewed Squirrels

Ingredients

3 grey squirrels, skinned and cleaned
½ pound fat salt pork, cut into small pieces
1 onion, sliced
12 ears corn, cut from the cob
6 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons butter, rolled in flour
parsley, to taste
water, enough to cover squirrels

Directions

Prepare and stew

Joint the squirrels as you would chickens for fricassee.
In a pot, combine squirrels, pork, onion, parsley, and enough water to cover.
Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.
Add corn and stew until the squirrels are tender.

Finish and serve

Then add the tomatoes and cook for another 20 minutes.
Stir in the butter and flour mixture and simmer for 10 minutes.
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.

Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,398 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pork + corntop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Squirrels: Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow stewing.
Fat salt pork: Adds fat and savory flavor to the stewing liquid.
Corn: Adds sweetness and body as it cooks into the stew.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and moisture, building the stew's flavor.
Butter and flour: Flour thickens the stewing liquid while butter adds richness.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter and flour mixture. Flour clumps if added dry, so it should be rolled into the butter and stirred in gradually. Simmering afterward lets the starch swell and thicken the liquid smoothly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, corn, tomato, butter, flour):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, corn, tomato, butter, 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Corn Fritters203 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Pork Cake107 recipes

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Stewed Squirrels