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Irish Stew

A slow‑cooked beef stew seasoned with salt and pepper, finished with butter and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Run the beef through a meat chopper.

  2. Cover the beef with cold water.

Cook the stew

  1. Cook slowly for 5 hours.

  2. Stir occasionally during cooking.

  3. Once heated, stir in the salt.

  4. Skim the surface frequently.

  5. After 3 hours, add the butter.

  6. Add both types of pepper.

  7. If the stew becomes too dry, add boiling water.

  8. Gradually stir in the remaining butter until 1 pound is used.

  9. Add seasoning if necessary.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

  2. For a second serving, add a little cream to moisten.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Main protein; long, slow cooking softens it into a tender stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the stew a smooth mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the stew when served again.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 5 hours. Gentle simmering keeps the beef tender. Vigorous boiling tightens muscle fibers and can make lean meat tough and dry, so the heat should stay low for the full cooking time.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, cream. 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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