Skip to main content
Main

Irish Stew

A hearty stew of lamb or beef with potatoes, carrots, onions simmered in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Irish Stew

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Brown the meat

  1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.

  2. Add the meat and brown on all sides.

  3. Stir in the onion and cook until softened.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the potatoes, carrots, and broth.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours until meat is tender.

  4. Garnish with fresh parsley 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.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Lamb + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Lamb or beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, thickening the stew and adding body.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and firm texture that holds up during long simmering.
Onion
Softens and releases sugars, building a savory base for the stew.
Beef or lamb broth
Provides the liquid that cooks the vegetables and carries savory flavor throughout.

The step that matters

Browning the meat. Searing meat over medium heat on all sides creates browned flavor through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pot or skipping this step leaves the meat steaming, which gives a flatter, greyer taste in the finished stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, potato, carrot, beef, pepper, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, potato, carrot, beef, pepper, parsley. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes