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A Baked Irish Stew

A baked stew of mutton or beef with potatoes and onions, seasoned and cooked in an oven.

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

A Baked Irish Stew

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a brown upright Nottingham jar, layer mutton or beef, sliced potatoes, and mild onions alternately.

  2. Add water and seasoning to the jar.

  3. Cover the top with whole peeled potatoes.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the top potatoes are well cooked and browned before serving.

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.

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. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or beef
Provides the meat, which becomes tender and flavourful as it cooks slowly in the sealed jar.
Sliced potatoes
Layered through the jar, they soften and thicken the stew as their starch releases into the liquid.
Mild onions
Soften and turn sweet during baking, adding mellow flavour to the stew.
Whole potatoes
Form a top layer that cooks through and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Covering the top with whole potatoes. The top layer shields the meat and sliced vegetables from direct heat, so they cook through without drying. Browning the top potatoes relies on the oven heat reaching them evenly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Turnipfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion. 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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