Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Beef Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Brown and simmer
Cut the beef into small pieces and brown in a pot.
Simmer the beef in 2 quarts of water for 1 hour.
Add the vegetables
Add the carrots and peas, and cook for 30 minutes.
Then add the potatoes and cook until they are done.
If using canned peas, add them 10 minutes 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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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + peastop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,016 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,606 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
- Beef
- Browning adds savory flavor, and long simmering breaks down its connective tissue so it becomes tender.
- Potatoes
- Their starch thickens the cooking liquid slightly and adds body to the stew.
The step that matters
Simmer the beef for 1 hour. A gentle simmer over a long time breaks down the beef's connective tissue, making it tender. Boiling it hard tends to toughen the meat and evaporate the liquid too quickly.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, potato):
- Beansfits better
- Peanutfits better
- Sesamefits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, 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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