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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of beef, mutton, onions, potatoes, and spices simmered slowly.

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

Layer the meat

  1. Place the rump steak in a large stewpan and cover it with sliced Spanish onion.

  2. Sprinkle the steak with coarse sea salt, then add the mutton cutlet or chops on top.

  3. Cover the mutton with another layer of onions, sprinkle with salt, black peppercorns, and the clove.

Stew and finish

  1. Barely cover with water and stew gently for 2 hours.

  2. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and boil them in a saucepan for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the potatoes and place them on top of the stew for the last part of cooking.

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. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Clove + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + muttontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

  5. 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

Rump steak
Provides beef flavor and tender, savory meat that enriches the stew's broth as it cooks.
Mutton
Contributes rich, savory flavor and fat that melts into the slow-cooked broth.
Spanish onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens and breaks down into the stew.
Mealy potatoes
Their starch breaks down easily, thickening the stew and giving a soft, fluffy texture.

The step that matters

Barely cover with water and stew gently. Gentle, low simmering keeps the meat tender and prevents toughening from proteins tightening under hard boiling. Too much water dilutes the broth.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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