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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of meat, onions, potatoes, and seasonings simmered until tender.

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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Place the meat in a saucepan and add the onions and half of the seasoning.

  2. Pour in enough water to just cover the meat.

  3. Layer the whole potatoes on top and sprinkle with the remaining seasoning.

Cook

  1. Cover the pan tightly with a lid and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours.

  2. Alternatively, bake in a covered dish at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour, until the potatoes are tender.

  3. Ensure the potatoes do not touch the water; they should steam on top of the meat.

Serve

  1. Mash one or two potatoes to thicken the gravy before serving.

  2. Arrange the potatoes around the meat in the serving dish.

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. Pepper + potatotop 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. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

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

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 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

Meat
Provides the main protein and flavour, and releases juices that build the gravy during slow cooking.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the cooking liquid as they soften.
Potatoes
Steam on top of the meat, then thicken the gravy when mashed and give the dish its body.

The step that matters

Keep the potatoes above the water. If the potatoes sit in the liquid they turn waterlogged and fall apart. Steaming them on top of the meat keeps them intact and lets their starch thicken the gravy gently when mashed.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, 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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