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An Irish Stew

A stew of mutton chops, potatoes, onion, butter, flour, and milk, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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An 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 ↓

An Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cover mutton chops with water and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour off the water and add more fresh water.

  3. Add butter, flour, milk, pepper, and salt.

  4. Include potatoes and onion.

  5. Boil until the potatoes are done.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Mutton chops
Provide the meat that gives the stew its main flavour and body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavour of the stew.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the stew a richer body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the stew's savoury edge.
Irish potatoes
Absorb the broth and add starch, making the stew heartier and thicker.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness that deepens the savoury base of the stew.

The step that matters

Pour off the water and add fresh water. Draining the first water after boiling removes scum and impurities from the meat, leaving a cleaner, better-tasting broth for the stew.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, milk, pepper, 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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