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Irish Stew

A slow-cooked beef stew with carrots, onions, potatoes, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Layer

  1. In a bean pot, layer half of the beef, half of the onions, and half of the carrots.

  2. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper.

  3. Repeat the layers, placing the remaining carrots on top and sprinkling with the same amount of salt and pepper.

Cook

  1. Fill the pot with cold water, cover, and cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. One hour before serving, add the sliced potatoes and Worcestershire sauce without stirring.

  3. Add the whole cloves and allspice berries to enhance the flavor.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat and rich flavour as it slowly cooks and becomes tender.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the stew slightly and absorbs the cooking liquid.
Onions
Break down during long cooking, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
Carrots
Soften over long cooking and add natural sweetness to the stew.

The step that matters

Adding the potatoes without stirring. Potatoes added an hour before serving have time to cook through without breaking down. Stirring them in early or often would crush the slices and cloud the broth with starch.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, pepper, sauce, clove, allspice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, pepper, sauce, clove, allspice. 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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