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Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton, onions, potatoes, and stock simmered until tender.

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the mutton into 8-10 chops, trimming excess fat and bone.

  2. Season the chops with pepper and salt.

  3. Place the chops in a deep saucepan and cover with water.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add the onions, cover, and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat, pour the liquid into a basin, and skim off the grease.

  3. Return the skimmed liquid to the chops, add the potatoes and stock or water.

  4. Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 45 minutes, ensuring it doesn't dry out.

  5. Carefully remove the potatoes to a plate, arrange the chops around them, and pour the gravy and onions over the dish. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Pepper + potatotop 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 + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat and rich fat that flavour the stew as it simmers.
Onions
Soften during simmering and add sweetness that rounds out the broth.
Potatoes
Thicken the gravy as their starch breaks down and absorb the meat flavour.
Stock
Adds savoury depth to the cooking liquid that becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Skimming the grease. Fat rises to the surface of the simmering liquid, and removing it before returning the liquid to the stew keeps the gravy clean-tasting and less greasy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, meat, potato. 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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