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Irish Stew

A stew of multiple chops with potatoes, onions, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large pot, combine the mutton, beef, veal, and pork chops.

  2. Add the quartered potatoes and sliced onions.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer

  1. Pour in the gravy and add catsup if desired.

  2. Cover the pot tightly and simmer slowly for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

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

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

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provides rich meat flavor and tender meat as the stew simmers slowly.
Beef chops
Adds deeper meaty flavor and body to the gravy during long simmering.
Irish potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as their starch releases, and soak up flavor.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and melt into the gravy.
Gravy
Supplies the liquid that moistens the meat and carries the seasoning through the pot.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly and stir occasionally. A gentle simmer breaks down the connective tissue in the chops so they turn tender. Stirring prevents sugars and starches on the pot bottom from scorching, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, veal, pork, potato, pepper, ham):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, veal, pork, potato, pepper, ham. 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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