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An Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton and potatoes simmered with pepper, salt, and optional onions.

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

An Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the stew

  1. In a large saucepan, layer half of the sliced potatoes.

  2. Season the mutton cutlets with pepper and place some on the potatoes.

  3. Add another layer of potatoes and repeat with the remaining mutton and potatoes.

  4. Reserve plenty of potatoes for the top layer.

Add water and simmer

  1. Pour in the cold water and add the salt when the stew begins to boil.

  2. Let it simmer gently for 2 hours.

  3. If using onions, add them with the potatoes.

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. Pepper + oniontop 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

Mutton cutlets
Supply the main meat and rich flavour, becoming tender as their connective tissue softens during slow cooking.
Potatoes
Their starch softens and thickens the cooking liquid while the slices form the layers and top of the stew.

The step that matters

Let it simmer gently for 2 hours.. A gentle simmer lets the mutton's connective tissue soften slowly, keeping the meat tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and breaks the potato layers apart.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. 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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