When you conjure up thoughts of Ireland, you likely think of sloping thatched-roof houses with gardens in front and huge fireplaces in rooms where the owners take refuge from Ireland's frequent rain. And on the table, by the fire, you would probably find Irish stew, a regular one-pot meal. Rustic, simple, and hearty, there's no one true recipe for the stew. It has evolved and adapted over time and different places, but it's usually made with lamb, onions,and potatoes. Other ingredients have been added or replaced over time; originally the stew was made with mutton—older animals with tougher and fattier meat—but nowadays lamb's shoulder seems to be the go-to cut. It was also made without potatoes, as these came to Ireland only in the 16th century when they were brought over from South America.
Each family has a favorite variation, but most people like to add carrots. Parsnips, peas, turnips, or celery can also appear, and even Guinness is added in some versions. Our recipe has tasty bacon and bacon fat to add an extra layer of flavor to the broth.
What Is the Difference Between a Stew and an Irish Stew?
What mainly sets the Irish stew apart from other stews is that it is, in origin, made with very few ingredients, like lamb, potatoes and carrots. Nowadays, the recipes have many more ingredients, but the true base is a humble and simple one-pot meal. Besides the number of ingredients, what differentiates Irish stews from other similar preparations is that they're thickened by the starch in the potatoes, and not by a roux. Even if adding a slurry of flour and cooled broth from the stew would thicken the consistency, Irish stews rarely rely on this trick.
This recipe appears in"The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors"by Jeff Smith.
Tips for Making This Irish Stew
In traditional fashion, make this stew the day before and refrigerate overnight, as it is even better reheated. The flavors have time to blend together more, which results in a more flavorful dish.
Accompany your meal with a loaf of good soda bread. Some pickles and sauerkraut can complement the earthy and bold flavors of the lamb.
If you want to use fewer dishes, cook the bacon, lamb, and garlic-onion mixture in the Dutch oven before making the stew.
What You'll Need to Make This Irish Lamb Stew Recipe
"I was shocked that only 4 cups of beef stock produced so much stew. The lamb is super-tender and the veggies are tender without being mushy. Very nice recipe and relatively easy once you're cooking it." —Melissa Gray
In a large skillet, sauté the bacon until crisp. Drain the fat and reserve both the bacon and the fat. Don't wash the skillet; you'll use it again.
In a large bowl, place the lamb, salt, pepper, and flour. Toss to coat evenly.
Add some of the bacon fat to the reserved skillet. In batches, brown the lamb on all sides. If you run out of fat, use some of the vegetable oil.
Transfer the browned meat to a large Dutch oven or other heavy-duty pot, leaving about 1/4 cup of fat in the skillet.
Add the garlic and the chopped yellow onion to the pan and sauté until the onion begins to color a bit.
Add the garlic-onion mixture to the Dutch oven with the reserved bacon, beef stock, and sugar.
Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, or until the lamb is tender.
Add the sliced onions, carrots, potatoes, thyme, bay leaf, and wine to the pot and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 1 hour. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.
Garnish with parsley and serve with soda bread, if desired.
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Irish stew (Irish: Stobhach Gaelach) or Stobhach is a stew native to Ireland that is traditionally made with root vegetables and lamb or mutton, but also commonly with beef. As in all traditional folk dishes, the exact recipe is not consistent from time to time, or place to place.
The main difference between an Irish stew and classic beef stew comes down to the protein. Traditional Irish stew is usually made with lamb, while beef stew is always made with beef. Our version includes beef chuck, which is less traditional, but easy to make and equally delicious.
The origins of Irish stew are somewhat shrouded in mystery, but it's believed to have originated in the 17th or 18th century. At that time, the dish was often made by shepherds and rural farmers who had access to only a few ingredients but needed a nourishing meal to sustain them through long days of work.
What gave the Irish stew its fresh flavour? - Quora. Simply by using good quality meat and FRESH vegetables, not frozen. While making stew, the woman of the house would go out to the kitchen garden and cut or pull what she needed, rinse them in cold water, chop them up and add them to the pot.
Believed to have been a staple of Irish cuisine since around the year 1800, heart-warming homemade stew remains a firm favourite to this day. To many across the country, Irish stew is the national dish of Ireland. The methods and flavour of an Irish stew vary from person to person and have evolved over the years.
In addition to chuck beef and Guinness Beer, here are the other ingredients in Irish Stew. Flour and tomato paste – to thicken sauce and the tomato paste also adds some flavour; Guinness Beer and broth/liquid stock – the braising liquids.
Stouts, like Guinness, are known for their bitterness. If the stew is cooked too quickly or if it doesn't include ingredients to balance the bitterness, this flavor can be very pronounced.
The famous Irish stew made with lamb, carrots, potatoes and onion was frequently featured on menus for third-class passengers on the Titanic. The stew would be consumed as part of the passengers' high tea, which was their second and final meal of the day.
However, the good news is that it is very difficult to actually overcook this dish. Your primary focus should be ensuring that it has cooked adequately rather than worrying about overcooking. A properly cooked Irish Stew should have a slightly thickened deep brown broth and extremely fork-tender meat.
Until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century, grains such as oats, wheat and barley, cooked either as porridge or bread, formed the staple of the Irish diet. The most common form of bread consisted of flatbread made from ground oats.
The varieties of potatoes eaten ranged over the centuries from the Irish Apple, Cup, Lumper, Rock, Champion, Kerr's Pink, to the Rooster which today holds the dominant market position. Potatoes were eaten at all levels of society, but in different guises.
While an old-fashioned, traditional Irish stew tended to contain mutton or lamb, potatoes, and maybe a few carrots, modern takes on the comforting dish range widely. While Irish stew (in the modern sense) can be made with mutton, lamb, or beef, beef stew is always made with beef.
The meat in traditional Irish stew is typically mutton or lamb. (Mutton comes from a sheep that's a little older than a lamb.) For this recipe I used lamb because it's easier to find in grocery stores. As far as the vegetables, sticklers for tradition only include potatoes, onions, and water.
"Mulligan" is a stand-in term for any Irishman, and Mulligan stew is simply an Irish stew that includes meat, potatoes, vegetables, and whatever else can be begged, scavenged, found or stolen. A local Appalachian variant is a burgoo, which may comprise such available ingredients as possum or squirrel.
Irish stew is made of lamb, potatoes and carrots and is very simply flavored with perhaps parsley or thyme and salt and pepper. In contrast, Hungarian goulash is made of beef and flavored very strongly with paprika.
A Mulligan Stew is also called a 'hobo stew' as it was a popular meal in hobo camps in the early 1900's. The stew was often cooked in a large can over an open fire.
This Great Depression staple was also known as “Hobo Stew.” Mulligan, being a common Irish surname, completes the recipe stew title because it's an adaptation to a classic Irish Beef Stew. During the depression, this catch-all meal was assembled by whatever anyone could scrounge up.
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