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To Make an Irish Stew, or Hunter’s Pie

A stew of mutton and potatoes baked in a mold with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Make an Irish Stew, or Hunter’s Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into chops and season well.

  2. Place the chops in a stew-pan and braise for 30 minutes.

Make the potato base

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash and season them.

  2. Butter a mold and line it with the mashed potatoes.

Bake and serve

  1. Add the mutton on top of the potatoes and bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Cut a hole in the top and pour in some good gravy before serving.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  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

Neck of mutton
Provides the main meat, which braising softens until tender and rich in flavor.
Potatoes
Form the starchy mashed layer that supports the meat and holds its shape when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the mashed potatoes and keeps the mold from sticking.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the dish just before it is served.

The step that matters

Lining the mold with mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes should be well drained and smooth, since excess water makes the layer loose and weakens its structure during baking.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionfits about as well

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