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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of potatoes, beef, carrots, turnips, and onions simmered in water with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Irish Stew

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and wash the potatoes.

  2. Scrape the carrot, peel the turnip and onions, and wash all well.

  3. Cut the onions into quarters and chop the carrot and turnip very small.

  4. Cut the beef into small pieces.

Cook and serve

  1. In a pan, combine all ingredients and add enough water to just cover the vegetables.

  2. Add pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Simmer slowly for one hour.

  4. Mix everything together with a spoon, then pour into a serving dish and serve.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

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

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the stew and thicken it as their starch softens during simmering.
Beef
Provides savory meat flavor and tenderizes into chewy, tender pieces during slow simmering.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and release their sugars into the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and color while holding its shape during long simmering.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for one hour. Water should only just cover the vegetables and the heat kept low. Gentle simmering lets the beef tenderize without toughening and lets the starch thicken the broth without the potatoes breaking apart.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, beef, carrot, onion, 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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