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Irish Stew

A stew of mutton chops, onions, potatoes simmered in cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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. Layer the mutton chops, sliced potatoes, and onions in a stew pan.

Cook

  1. Pour in the cold water and cover the pan tightly.

  2. Simmer gently until the potatoes are soft and most of the gravy is absorbed.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

  3. 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

Mutton chops
Provide the meat, whose fat and juices flavour the stew as it simmers.
Potatoes
Soften during slow simmering and thicken the stew as their starch releases into the liquid.
Onions
Break down during simmering, adding sweetness and body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the potatoes are soft and most of the gravy is absorbed.. A gentle simmer under a tight lid cooks the meat and potatoes evenly without toughening the meat or breaking the potatoes apart. Stopping too early leaves the potatoes firm, while over-reducing dries the stew out.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Turnipfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion. 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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