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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, potatoes, onions, and stock, simmered until tender and thickened.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into serving pieces and trim off excess fat.

  2. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes and large onion; peel and blanch the button onions.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer potatoes in a stewpan, followed by a layer of mutton, then a slice or two of onion, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.

  2. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, ensuring the top layer is potatoes with button onions interspersed.

  3. Add stock or water, bring to a boil, and skim off any foam.

  4. Cover the stewpan and cook gently for about 1½ hours, until the potatoes are tender and the stew thickens.

Serve

  1. If desired, add 1 teaspoon of mushroom or walnut ketchup before serving.

  2. Serve in a hot dish, garnished with chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

Neck of mutton
Provides the meat and fat that flavour the stew as it simmers slowly.
Potatoes
Break down during long gentle cooking, helping to thicken the stew and give body.
Button onions
Hold their shape during cooking and add mild sweetness to the stew.
Large onion
Melts into the liquid during cooking, adding savoury depth and sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking gently with the lid on. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the mutton tender and prevents the stock from reducing too fast. A rolling boil would toughen the meat and can break up the potatoes.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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