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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton chops, potatoes, onions, ham, pepper, salt, broth, and mushroom ketchup, simmered slowly.

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

Prepare

  1. Peel, slice, and parboil the potatoes, then discard the cooking liquid.

  2. Trim the fat from the mutton chops, leaving 2 pounds.

Layer and stew

  1. In a stewpan or closely covered earthen pot, layer the ingredients: start with potatoes, then meat and onions, sprinkling with seasoning.

  2. Repeat the layers, finishing with a top layer of potatoes.

  3. Add the broth or gravy and mushroom ketchup.

  4. Cover and stew slowly for 1.5 hours, ensuring it does not burn.

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. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starchy bulk that softens into the stew and thickens the liquid as it cooks.
Mutton
Provides rich meaty flavour, and its fat and connective tissue enrich the stew during slow cooking.
Onions
Release sweetness as they cook slowly, adding depth to the broth.
Broth or gravy
Forms the cooking liquid that moistens the layers and carries flavour through the stew.

The step that matters

Stew slowly, covered, without burning. Gentle, covered heat lets the tough meat become tender without boiling it dry or scorching the base. Too much heat toughens the meat and can burn the bottom of the pot.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, ham, pepper, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, ham, pepper, mushroom, ketchup. 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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