Skip to main content
Main

Irish Stew

A hearty lamb stew with potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Irish Stew

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the lamb into pieces and place in a large pot.

  2. Peel and chop the potatoes, onions, carrots, and turnips, then add them to the pot.

Cook

  1. Add the rice and enough water to cover the ingredients.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until everything is tender.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Stewing lamb
Provides the meat, which becomes tender and flavourful during long, slow simmering.
Potatoes
Starch that softens into the broth, adding body and thickening the stew.
Onions
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as they soften in the simmering liquid.
Carrots
Adds natural sweetness and firm texture that holds up through simmering.
Turnips
Adds a mild, slightly peppery flavour and tender texture to the stew.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, helping thicken the liquid around the other ingredients.

The step that matters

Simmering until everything is tender. Gentle simmering breaks down the lamb's connective tissue into gelatin, making the meat tender. A hard boil can toughen meat and break up vegetables, so keep the heat low.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, potato, carrot, turnip, rice):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, potato, carrot, turnip, rice. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes