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Irish Stew

A stew of mutton chops simmered with potatoes, onions, butter, flour, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

  1. Cover mutton chops with water and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour off the water and add more water.

  3. Add butter, flour, milk, and season with salt.

  4. Add potatoes and onions.

  5. Boil until the potatoes are done.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, fat and savoury flavour that form the base of the stew.
Flour
Starch that thickens the milky liquid into a creamy, body-rich sauce as it heats.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat, richness and a rounded flavour to the sauce.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook, adding bulk and a little extra starch that thickens the stew.
Onions
Turn sweet and aromatic as they cook, balancing the savoury meat.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and milk. Flour thickens only when its starch heats in liquid, so it should be mixed in evenly to avoid lumps. Milk can scorch on the bottom of the pot or curdle at a hard boil, so keep the stew at a gentle simmer once it is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter, egg, flour, milk, potato):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, egg, flour, milk, 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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