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Brunswick Stew

A stew of chicken, veal liver, corn, tomatoes, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and liver match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 392 recipes. Both carry enoic acid, which smells butter, cheesy. The science ↓

Brunswick Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and liver

  1. Boil the chickens until the meat separates from the bone.

  2. Boil the veal liver and mash it.

  3. Cut up the chicken, removing bones and skin, and return it to the stock in the kettle.

Make the stew

  1. Add corn, tomatoes, milk, and seasoning to the kettle.

  2. Boil until thick, being careful to avoid scorching the milk.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  2. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the meat and stock that form the base of the stew.
Veal liver
Mashed into the stew to add body and a rich, savoury depth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and texture to the stew.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, balancing the rich milk and meat.
Sweet milk
Makes the stew creamy and, as it thickens, gives it body.

The step that matters

Boil until thick, being careful to avoid scorching the milk. Milk contains sugars and proteins that scorch easily on direct heat at the bottom of a pot. Scorched milk gives a burnt taste that spreads through the whole stew, so the mixture needs frequent stirring and gentle heat while it thickens.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, liver, butter, corn, tomato, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, liver, butter, corn, tomato, milk. 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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