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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, onions, potatoes, and stock seasoned with salt and pepper.

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

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the mutton into chops and trim off some fat.

  2. Place the chops in a stewpan and cover with stock or water.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain off the liquid and remove all fat.

Make the stew

  1. Peel the onions and add them to the stewpan with plenty of pepper and salt, and the potatoes.

  2. Add the reserved liquid and cover the stewpan tightly.

  3. Simmer for 45 minutes.

  4. Serve the meat and some vegetables.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Potato + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat, whose fat is trimmed and skimmed so the stew stays lean and clear.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering, thickening the liquid slightly and adding starchy body to the stew.
Onions
Soften during long simmering, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Strain off the liquid and remove all fat. Fat that stays in the liquid rises and sets on the surface and makes the stew greasy. Removing it before the vegetables go in keeps the broth clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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