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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of marrowfat peas, carrots, parsnip, turnip, potatoes, onions, and butter simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the marrowfat peas overnight in hot or cold water.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the soaked peas and chopped vegetables with boiling water.

  2. Cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

  3. When nearly done, add the celery salt, salt, pepper, and butter.

  4. Optionally, add a few drops of browning for color.

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Marrowfat peas
Thicken the stew as they break down during the long simmer, giving body to the broth.
Potatoes
Release starch into the broth, adding body and helping to thicken the stew.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften and their sugars develop during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, rounding out the flavor and mouthfeel of the broth.

The step that matters

Cooking for 2 hours with occasional stirring. Dried marrowfat peas need a long, gentle simmer to soften fully and break down into the broth. Stirring keeps them from sticking to the bottom of the pot and scorching.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato, onion, butter, celery):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato, onion, butter, celery. 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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