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Beef Stew with Dumplings

A hearty stew of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, and onions, topped with buttered dumplings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Beef Stew with Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a kettle, combine beef and enough water to cover.

  2. Add potatoes, carrots, onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Parboil potatoes for 5 minutes, then add to the meat.

  4. Just before the potatoes are done, prepare dumplings.

Make and cook the dumplings

  1. Mix flour and baking powder, then work in melted butter.

  2. Gradually add milk and mix until combined.

  3. Drop dumplings from a spoon onto the stew.

  4. Stir in flour mixed with a little cold water.

  5. Cover and let stew for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve in a deep hot platter, surrounding with dumplings.

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. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Roast beef remnants
Provides the main meat and savory flavor that the stew is built around.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth and gives the stew body.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dumplings and thickens the stew liquid.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the dumplings rise and turn light.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dumplings and gives them richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dumpling dough comes together and browns lightly.

The step that matters

Keep the stew covered while the dumplings steam. Trapping steam cooks the dumplings through and lets them rise; lifting the lid lets steam escape, leaving dense, gummy dumplings.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, onion, pepper, flour, butter, 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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