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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton or veal with pork, onions, potatoes, butter, flour, marjoram, and water.

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

Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the meat in enough water to cover for 3 hours.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. About 30 minutes before serving, add the onions and potatoes.

  4. When the potatoes are done, thicken the gravy with a mixture of butter and flour.

  5. Stir in the marjoram before serving.

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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + marjoramtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Breast of mutton or veal
Long simmering turns the tough connective tissue tender and gives the broth its rich flavor.
Potatoes
Their starch softens during cooking and adds body and substance to the stew.
Onions
They soften and release sweetness into the broth as they cook.
Flour
Mixed with butter, it thickens the gravy as its starch swells in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy with butter and flour. Adding the flour-butter mixture to liquid that is not hot enough, or stirring poorly, leaves lumps. Whisking it into simmering liquid lets the starch swell evenly into a smooth gravy.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, pepper, onion, potato, butter, flour. 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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