Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Beef Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Trim all fat from the meat and fry it gently in a stew pan for 10-15 minutes.
Cut the meat into small pieces, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of flour.
Chop the vegetables into very small pieces and add them to the pan with the fat; fry for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the meat to the pan and stir until it begins to brown.
Simmer the stew
Pour in 1 quart of boiling water, cover, and let it boil once before skimming.
Reduce heat to a simmer for 2½ hours.
Add sliced potatoes and 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with ½ cup cold water; pour in gradually until smooth.
Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.
Finish
Bring to a boil again and cook for 10 minutes before adding dumplings.
Cover tightly and boil rapidly for another 10 minutes.
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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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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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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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 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 long, slow simmering.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich gravy.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and body, softening as they cook and thickening the stew slightly.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the fat.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and water mixture. Flour lumps if poured in dry or added too fast; mixing it with cold water first and pouring gradually keeps it smooth, while the simmering liquid then thickens it evenly as starch swells.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, potato, flour, pepper):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, potato, flour, 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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