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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton chops, potatoes, onions, and seasonings simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare

  1. Slice the potatoes and onions.

  2. Layer half of the potatoes and onions at the bottom of a stewpan.

Assemble and cook

  1. Place the mutton chops on top and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Pack the ingredients closely and cover with the remaining potatoes and onions.

  3. Pour in enough water or stock to moisten the top layer.

  4. Cover the stewpan tightly and simmer gently for 3 hours without removing the lid.

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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, which becomes tender during the long, gentle simmer.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the stew and thicken the liquid as their starch breaks down.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth as they soften and melt into the broth.
Water or stock
Provides the cooking liquid that moistens the layers and forms the broth.

The step that matters

Cover and simmer gently without lifting the lid. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender rather than tough and stringy. Lifting the lid lets heat and steam escape, lowering the temperature and slowing the cooking, so the stew can take longer to become tender.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, meat, 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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