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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton chops, potatoes, turnips, onions, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Irish Stew

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 ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Layer the mutton chops and sliced potatoes in a stewpan.

  2. Add the chopped turnips and onions on top.

  3. Pour in 1 quart of cold water and cover the stewpan tightly.

Cook and serve

  1. Simmer gently until the vegetables are soft and most of the gravy is absorbed.

  2. Transfer to a dish and serve hot.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the meat, fat and savory flavor that dominate the stew.
Potatoes
Break down slowly as they cook, adding body and thickening the gravy.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor as they soften in the liquid.
Onions
Release sugars as they cook, adding sweetness and aroma to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. A gentle simmer lets the connective tissue in the mutton break down slowly, keeping the meat tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and can break up the potatoes, while an uncovered pot evaporates the liquid too fast.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, potato, onion):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, onion. 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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