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Dutch Stew

A stew of cooked meat squares simmered in butter, vinegar, gravy, bay leaves, cloves, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and red wine work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 849 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Dutch Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add vinegar, sugar, salt, onion, bay leaves, and cloves; sauté until fragrant.

Make the sauce

  1. Stir in gravy or bouillon and beaten egg; heat until hot.

  2. If using, stir in red wine and adjust sugar to taste.

Finish

  1. Add squares of cooked meat and cook until heated through.

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. Clove + red winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy or bouillon
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor for the stew.
Beaten egg
Thickens the liquid gently as it heats, giving the stew body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and rounds out the flavor.
Cooked meat
Supplies the main protein and substance of the stew.

The step that matters

Heating the egg into the sauce. Adding beaten egg to hot liquid can scramble it into lumps. Stir constantly and heat gently so the egg thickens the sauce smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, sugar, clove, egg, red wine, meat):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, sugar, clove, egg, red wine, meat. 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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