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Corned Beef Stew

A stew of sliced corned beef, potatoes, onions, and flour simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Corned Beef Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into thin slices and trim off some fat.

  2. In a large saucepan, heat the fat over medium heat for about 12 minutes.

Make the gravy

  1. Add the sliced onions and fry slowly for 10 minutes.

  2. Stir in the flour and fry for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Gradually add the cold water and cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Season well with salt and pepper.

Simmer and serve

  1. Layer the potatoes and beef in the saucepan, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.

  2. Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve on a platter, being careful not to break the meat or potatoes.

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

Corned beef
Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the stew.
Potatoes
Add body and starch that soften during simmering and thicken the stew.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry slowly, adding depth to the base.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy when fried and mixed with water.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water gradually. Adding cold liquid slowly to the hot flour and fat lets the starch disperse evenly, preventing lumps and producing a smooth, thickened gravy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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