Name: Mrs. Phillips’s Irish Stew
Ingredients: 5 thick mutton chops (or 2 pounds of neck or loin); 2 pounds of potatoes; 6 onions (or ½ pound of onions); 1 teaspoon white pepper; 1½ teaspoons coarse sea salt; 3½ cups broth or gravy; 2 teaspoons mushroom ketchup; small slice of ham (optional)

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 ↓

Mrs. Phillips’s Irish Stew

Ingredients

5 thick mutton chops (or 2 pounds of neck or loin)
2 pounds of potatoes
6 onions (or ½ pound of onions)
1 teaspoon white pepper
1½ teaspoons coarse sea salt
3½ cups broth or gravy
2 teaspoons mushroom ketchup
small slice of ham (optional)

Directions

Prepare

Peel and halve the potatoes.
Peel and slice the onions.

Assemble and stew

Layer potatoes, mutton chops, and onions in a stew-pan until full.
Add white pepper, salt, broth, and mushroom ketchup.
Cover tightly to keep steam in and stew on low heat for 1.5 hours.
Add a 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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together968 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together685 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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 enrich the broth as it stews.
Potatoes: Thicken the stew as their starch breaks down and gives body to the liquid.
Onions: Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and release their sugars during stewing.
Broth or gravy: Supplies the cooking liquid and moisture that gently braises the meat and vegetables.
Mushroom ketchup: Adds savory, umami depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and stew on low heat. A tight lid keeps steam in so the liquid stays moist, while low heat lets the meat turn tender through slow braising without toughening or drying out.

Swap the white pepper

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

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Celeryfits better
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.

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Potato Rolls78 recipes

Mushroom Soup60 recipes

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Mrs. Phillips’s Irish Stew