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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, 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, skimming occasionally and removing fat.

  3. Add the onions and potatoes to the stew and let it simmer for another hour.

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

Serve

  1. Arrange the cutlets in a circle on a hot dish, pour the sauce around, and place 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 main body and rich flavour of the stew as it simmers slowly in water.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and thicken the broth slightly while adding starch and body.
Onions
Soften during simmering and add sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface after boiling and during simmering. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and rendered fat that would otherwise cloud the broth and make it greasy, giving a cleaner, clearer sauce.

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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