Skip to main content
Main

Irish Stew

A hearty stew of mutton or back ribs with potatoes, onions, and seasonings, cooked slowly in gravy or water.

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

Irish Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the meat into cutlets and flatten with a rolling pin.

  2. Dip the meat in a mixture of pepper, coarse sea salt, and flour.

  3. Peel and slice the potatoes, using 2 pounds for every pound of meat.

  4. Slice the onions into small bits.

Layer and stew

  1. Melt a little suet or dripping in a pot.

  2. Layer the pot with potatoes, dust with pepper and salt, then add a layer of meat and chopped onions.

  3. Repeat layers until the pot is nearly full.

  4. Add about 1 cup of gravy or water.

  5. Finish with a layer of potatoes on top.

  6. Cover tightly and let stew slowly for about 3 hours, shaking the pot occasionally to prevent burning.

  7. 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. 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 the liquid as they break down during slow cooking.
Back ribs or neck of mutton
Provide the meat and rich flavour that the slow stew draws into the broth.
Flour
Coats the meat so the cooking liquid thickens slightly around it.
Suet or dripping
Adds fat for browning and a rich, savoury flavour to the pot.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and flavour the stew.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and stew slowly. Gentle, covered simmering tenderises tough meat and keeps the potatoes from drying out. Shaking the pot helps stop the bottom from scorching while the liquid is still thin.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipes