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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of rump steak, mutton or chops, onions, peppercorns, clove, potatoes, simmered slowly.

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

Why it works: Onion and potato 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

Build the layers

  1. Place the rump steak in a large stewpan.

  2. Cover the steak with sliced onion.

  3. Sprinkle salt over the steak.

  4. Add the mutton cutlet or chops on top of the steak.

  5. Cover the mutton with another layer of onions.

  6. Sprinkle salt over the onions.

  7. Sprinkle peppercorns and clove over the onions.

  8. Barely cover the mixture with water.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew gently for 2 hours.

  2. Peel the potatoes.

  3. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove the potatoes from the pot.

  5. Place the boiled potatoes on top of the stew.

  6. Cover the stew with a lid.

  7. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  8. Serve the stew in a deep dish with meat and onions in the center, surrounded by potatoes.

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

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

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Clove + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + muttontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides meaty flavour and body to the broth as it slowly stews.
Mutton
Adds rich meat flavour and tender texture after gentle, long stewing.
Spanish onion
Sweetens and deepens the stew's flavour as it cooks down.
Potatoes
Absorb the savoury juices and thicken the stew as their starch softens.

The step that matters

Stew gently for 2 hours. A gentle simmer lets collagen in the steak and mutton break down into tender meat and enriches the liquid. Boiling hard toughens muscle fibres and can make the meat dry and stringy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mutton, potato. 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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