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Ieish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton chops, potatoes, onions, and broth seasoned with white pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Ieish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Layer and season

  1. Layer half of the potatoes at the bottom of a stewpan.

  2. Add a couple of chops and some sliced onions on top.

  3. Repeat the layers until the pan is full.

  4. Sprinkle with white pepper and salt.

  5. Pour in the broth or gravy and mushroom ketchup.

Stew

  1. Cover tightly to prevent steam from escaping.

  2. Stew on a very low heat for 1½ hours.

  3. Add a small slice of ham for extra flavor, if desired.

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

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

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

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

  4. Mutton + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together685 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton chops
Provide the meat, whose fat and collagen flavor the broth as the stew cooks slowly.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they simmer, thickening the stew and adding body.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet during long, gentle cooking, adding depth to the broth.
Broth or gravy
Supplies the cooking liquid that moistens the layers and carries savory flavor.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savory, umami flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and keep the heat very low. A tight lid traps steam so the liquid stays in the pan and the meat cooks gently. High heat would toughen the meat and could scorch the bottom layers before the stew is done.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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