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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, potatoes, onions, and stock, simmered for two hours.

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

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 ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into convenient pieces and trim off some fat.

  2. Wash, peel, and slice the potatoes.

  3. Peel and slice the large onion.

  4. Peel the button onions and blanch them.

Layer and simmer

  1. Layer potatoes at the bottom of a stewpan, followed by a layer of meat, seasoning with salt and pepper, and adding a few slices of onion.

  2. Repeat layering until all meat is used, then add the whole blanched button onions.

  3. Cover the top with a layer of potatoes and add the stock.

  4. Remove any scum before simmering.

  5. Light the gas jets, lower the heat, and let simmer for about two hours.

  6. Do not skim the stew; the fat will be absorbed by the potatoes.

Serve

  1. When done, serve neatly on a hot dish and sprinkle 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Absorb fat during the long simmer and thicken the stew as they break down.
Neck of mutton
Provides the rich meat and fat that flavour the stew as it simmers.
Stock
Provides the cooking liquid that gently braises the meat and vegetables.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften during the simmer.

The step that matters

Keep the heat low and let it simmer. A gentle simmer keeps the tough mutton tender and prevents the potatoes from breaking apart and the stock from reducing or scorching. A hard boil toughens meat and can make the stew cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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