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Irish Stew

A hearty mutton stew with potatoes and onions simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Prepare

  1. Cut and trim the mutton cutlets as for Haricot Mutton.

  2. Place the cutlets in a stewpan.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then pour in the cold water.

  4. Wash, scrub, and peel the potatoes, then cut them in halves.

  5. Peel the onions carefully.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil, then skim the surface.

  2. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Skim occasionally and remove any fat.

  4. Add the onions and potatoes to the stew and simmer for another hour.

  5. Check if the vegetables are tender with a fork.

Serve

  1. Arrange the cutlets in a circle on a hot dish and pour the sauce around, placing the vegetables in the center.

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

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

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

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

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the rich meat and fat that flavour the broth as it simmers slowly.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the stew slightly as their starch releases into the liquid.
Onions
Break down gently during simmering, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after boiling. A rolling boil toughens the meat fibres and makes the broth cloudy. Gentle simmering keeps the meat tender and the sauce clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, 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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