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Irish Stew for 100

A hearty stew of meat, onions, potatoes, carrots, lentil flour, and bread, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 for 100

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Cut the meat into pieces.

  2. Brown the meat in a large pot.

  3. Add chopped onions. Cook until softened.

Simmer

  1. Stir in diced potatoes, carrots, and lentil flour.

  2. Pour in water.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Simmer until the meat and vegetables are tender.

Serve

  1. Serve with slices of bread.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Meat
Browning gives savory flavor, and slow simmering makes it tender.
Potatoes
Starch thickens the stew as it cooks and adds body.
Lentil flour
Starch and protein help thicken the broth into a heartier texture.
Spanish onions
Soften during cooking, adding sweetness and depth to the broth.
Carrots
Hold their shape through simmering and add natural sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmer until the meat and vegetables are tender. Tough cuts need long, gentle simmering so collagen breaks down into gelatin. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and break up the vegetables.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, flour, bread, carrot, 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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