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Brunswick Stew

A hearty stew of chicken, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, butter beans, and optional okra.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and okra share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the jointed chicken in a stew pan and cover with water.

  2. Add the chopped tomatoes, scraped corn, diced potatoes, butter beans, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook on low heat until the stew thickens, stirring occasionally.

  4. If desired, add a handful of tender green okra for extra flavor.

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. Beans + okratop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat and rich flavor that the stew is built around.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that help form the body of the stew.
Green corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the stew.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, giving the stew body and thickness.
Butter beans
Add starch and a creamy texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Cook on low heat until the stew thickens. Low, gentle heat lets the starch from the potatoes and beans release slowly and the liquid reduce without scorching. Stirring occasionally prevents sticking on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the okra

The recipe marks okra as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, tomato, corn, potato, butter, beans, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Okrathe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, corn, potato, butter, beans, 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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