Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Beef Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stew
Fry the salt pork in a kettle until cooked, then remove it.
Add 2 quarts of water to the kettle.
Put in 1.5 pounds of boiling meat cut into pieces.
Add the vegetables and finish
One hour before serving, add the turnip.
Half an hour later, add the potatoes.
Add more water if necessary, thicken, and season before serving.
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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Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,668 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together562 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pork + meattop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,208 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Pork + turniptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,358 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together786 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boiling meat
- Provides the main protein, which becomes tender during long simmering.
- Potatoes
- Break down partly as they cook, helping to thicken the broth and add body.
- Turnip
- Adds a mildly sweet, earthy flavour and firm texture to the stew.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat into the kettle to add savoury flavour before the liquid is added.
The step that matters
Adding the vegetables on time. Turnip needs about an hour of simmering to soften, while potatoes need less. Adding them too early can overcook them to mush, and adding them too late leaves them firm and underdone in the broth.
Swap the turnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, meat, potato):
- Onionfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pork, meat, potato. 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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