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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of beef or mutton, onions, potatoes, and cream, simmered with pepper, salt, and optional mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Cover the meat with cold water in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour until the meat is tender.

  3. Add the sliced onion, pepper, salt, and mace, tasting the broth as you season.

  4. Cover and stew for another hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil the potatoes separately until tender, then cut them into small pieces.

  2. Add the potatoes to the stew and stir to combine.

  3. Mix the flour with a little cream to make a smooth thickening, then stir it into the stew.

  4. Add the remaining cream, bring to a boil, and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 or mutton
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding body and starch to the stew.
Flour
Thickens the stew's liquid as it heats, giving it a smoother body.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished stew.
Onion
Releases sweetness and savory depth into the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour and cream. Flour mixed into cold cream first disperses evenly, so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps when stirred into the hot stew.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, potato, flour, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

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