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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, potatoes, onions, and turnips simmered with pepper and hot water.

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

Layer the stew

  1. In a stewpan, layer sliced potatoes, followed by sliced onions and turnips.

  2. Add the mutton and season with pepper.

  3. Layer more onions and turnips, and finish with another layer of potatoes.

Stew

  1. Stew on a hot plate or in the oven for about 30 minutes.

  2. Gradually add a small cup of hot water, stewing for a total of two hours.

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. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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

Mutton
Long stewing breaks down connective tissue in the neck bones, making the meat tender and enriching the broth.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and thickens the stew, giving it body and bulk.
Onions
They soften and release sweetness and savoury aroma into the stew.
Turnips
They add mild sweetness and earthy flavour as they soften during stewing.

The step that matters

Adding the water gradually and stewing for the full two hours. Slow, gentle simmering over a long time converts the tough connective tissue in the mutton into gelatin, which makes the meat tender. Rushing it or boiling hard leaves the meat tough and can break up the potatoes.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, onion, pepper. 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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