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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of meat, potatoes, carrots, onion simmered in brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Brown the base

  1. Cut the meat into chunks and brown in a pot.

  2. Add chopped onion and cook until translucent.

  3. Stir in the brown gravy and bring to a simmer.

Simmer until tender

  1. Add diced potatoes and carrots, season with salt and pepper.

  2. Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

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. 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Meat
Browning builds savory flavor and gives the stew its hearty, chewy body.
Potatoes
Their starch softens during cooking and thickens the stew, adding body.
Carrots
Cooking releases natural sugars, adding gentle sweetness that balances the savory gravy.
Onion
Softening it slowly brings out sweetness and a mellow aromatic base.
Brown gravy
Supplies the liquid that cooks the vegetables and carries the stew's savory flavor.

The step that matters

Brown the meat well. Browning drives Maillard reactions that create deep, savory flavor. Meat crowded in the pot steams instead of browning, so the stew tastes flat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, carrot, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, carrot, pepper. 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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