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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, potatoes, and onions seasoned with pepper and coarse sea salt, simmered slowly in cold water.

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

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the potatoes well in cold water.

  2. Peel the potatoes, remove any eyes or black specks, and slice them.

  3. Peel the onions and slice them.

  4. Wash the mutton in cold water, scrape it clean, and trim off the fat.

  5. Cut the mutton into small pieces.

Layer and cook

  1. In a large saucepan, layer the meat, then potatoes, then onions.

  2. Sprinkle a little pepper and coarse sea salt over each layer.

  3. Continue layering until all meat and vegetables are used.

  4. Pour in enough cold water to cover the bottom of the saucepan (about ½ pint).

  5. Place the saucepan on the fire and bring to a boil, then skim the surface.

  6. Reduce heat and let it stew gently for 1.5 to 2 hours, skimming and stirring occasionally.

Serve

  1. Serve the stew hot on a dish.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 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

Potatoes
Bulk up the stew and thicken the liquid as their starch softens during slow cooking.
Scrag end of mutton
Provides the meat and rich flavour as its connective tissue breaks down during long, gentle stewing.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma that deepen as they cook slowly in the broth.

The step that matters

Reduce heat and stew gently. Boiling hard toughens the mutton and can break up the potatoes, while a gentle simmer lets the connective tissue soften into tender meat and keeps the stew clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, mutton, pepper. 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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