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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, onions, pot herbs, rice, potatoes, and dough balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the stew

  1. In a kettle, combine the mutton, sliced onion, and pot herbs.

  2. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Add the rice and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the diced potatoes and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the dumplings and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Moisten the mixture with water to form a soft dough.

  3. Lightly form the dough into balls and drop them on top of the stew.

  4. Cover the kettle and boil for 10 minutes.

  5. Season to taste and serve.

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. Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Provides the meat and rich fat that flavour the broth as it simmers slowly.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding body and starch that thicken the stew.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dumplings, holding them together when moistened and cooked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the moist dough, helping the dumplings puff up and turn light.
Rice
Adds starch that helps thicken the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Drop the dough balls onto the stew and keep the lid on. The dumplings need steam from the covered kettle to cook through and rise. Lifting the lid lets steam escape, so they can turn dense and gummy. Keep the dough soft, since overworking it develops gluten and makes it tough.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, potato, flour. 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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