Proper Irish Stew

Polythene Pam · 23-01-2008 5:39pm #1

Hi can anyone give me a plain simple receipe for proper irish stew?
(I can trade with a plain simple receipe for proper italian pizza..)

Thanks

ibh · 23-01-2008 5:45pm

stew recipe (it's beef stew as i prefer it to lamb)

steak pieces
onion
carrots
potatoes
stock which can be either home made or from a stock cube'
garlic

method
chop onion finely
fry till golden along with clove of garlic.lift out on to a plate. meant to say that i use olive oil to fry off.
add some more oil & fry off the meat turning so that its golden both sides.
lift out meat to a plate & to the pan add some stock thicken with flour so that you now have the juice for the stew.
peel the spuds & carrots
add all the ingreds into a saucepan or casserole dish & cook for about hour and half. dont forget salt & pepper.

remember to cook gently, as a STEW BOILED IS A STEW SPOILED.
put all the ingredients into a saucepan or casserole dish.

easy!!

Now lets see that pizza recipie..!

Ponster · 26-01-2008 12:48pm

Recipe is fine but if the OP is looking for 'proper' Irish stew as in the thread title then youd have to use mutton rather than beef

The Sweeper · 28-01-2008 1:06am

I make mine as a slow-cook dish in the oven. I find using lamb in an irish stew can really dry the meat out, but mutton can be difficult to get. This way the meat stays tender and the whole dish is tasty.

I use gigot lamb chops, bone-in, if I can get them, or any reasonably fatty lamb chops with the bone still in. Gigot chops are cross cuts of a lamb shoulder. Neck of lamb is fatty enough for this, but I find anything with bone-in makes it far, far sweeter.

I judge amounts on a serving basis, allowing two gigot chops per person and one for the pot (or two for the pot if I'm serving five people or more, so for four people, I use nine chops).

I also allow one large onion between two people, three carrots, four potatoes and two sticks of celery. I don't use barley any more - I love it, but jesus it just seems to make everyone fart for two days after eating the stew.

Assume stew for four people. You'll need nine large chops, two large or three medium onions, eight large potatoes, six carrots, four sticks of celery, about two tablespoons of plain flour, pepper and salt, some stock if you have some and fresh herbs - parsley and thyme are the best with rosemary also excellent.

You'll need a non-stick pan and a pot that can go in the oven or a casserole dish.

Season the flour heavily with pepper and salt, and dip each chop in flour. Shake off the excess. In the non stick pan, add a little flavourless oil, and brown the chops one by one, then set aside. There should be a little oil in the pan and some of the juices of the chops - add the remaining flour to this pan and allow it to soak up the juices, then add your stock to it gradually, so it doesn't go lumpy, and allow your stock to heat while you do the rest of the preparation. If you have lamb stock, excellent, use the lamb stock. If you don't have lamb stock, my personal preference would be to use vegetable stock, or half chicken stock and half water, but I wouldn't use beef stock because I find it too strongly flavoured and think it drowns out the lamb flavour.

Prepare the vegetables - the onions should be in large chunks, the carrots in rounds and the celery in slices. With the potatoes, peel them and then slice them into rounds around a half an inch thick.

Now the construction - on the bottom of the dish for the oven, layer three chops. Then cover the chops with a mixture of the chopped onion, carrot rounds and celery pieces. Now layer the sliced potatoes over the other vegetables. Season the potatoes well with pepper and salt. Now add some herbs - I like to layer a couple of sprigs of parsley, sprigs of thyme and two stalks of rosemary. Now start layering again - three more chops, more veg, more potatoes, seasoning, more herbs, and then the last layer of three chops and veg and potatoes and seasoning. Then top with herbs.

(It's worth noting that some people don't fancy pulling thyme stalks out of their dinner, so if you want, prechop the herbs and add them in chopped handfuls bewteen the layers, but make sure you don't chop up any woody bits.)

I then pour the hot stock over the layers until I'm just at the level of the top layer of potatoes - not quite covering them, but not shy of them.

Then put a lid on the pot and put it in the oven at around 160 degrees for a couple of hours. You want this to cook long and slow, so depending on your own oven you may even reduce the heat further. I usually cook mine on gas mark three for two hours in a le creuset pot, so the cast iron of the pot affects the cooking time too.

The resulting stew will be thick and delicious, the meat will still be tender and juicy. The whole thing will be bloody hot though, so be prepared to ladle it out into bowls and sit there salivating over it and waiting for it to cool for ten frustrating minutes.

BaZmO* · 28-01-2008 2:12am

MAJD, that recipe sounds absolutely delish and I might actually give it a bash but it does sounds quite cheffy. I've never heard of lamb chops in a stew before. Do many other people do this?

My mother and her mother before and her mother....you get the picture.....always used beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, thyme, parsley and and stock all in a pot and simmer for a few hours. And tbh, that's the way anybody else I know does it too (with maybe slight variations, barley, mince etc.)

Mr.Boots · 28-01-2008 2:37am

Electric slow cookers are great fro doing stew......very very slowly;)

The Sweeper · 28-01-2008 4:41am

BaZmO* wrote: »

MAJD, that recipe sounds absolutely delish and I might actually give it a bash but it does sounds quite cheffy. I've never heard of lamb chops in a stew before. Do many other people do this?

My mother and her mother before and her mother....you get the picture.....always used beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, thyme, parsley and and stock all in a pot and simmer for a few hours. And tbh, that's the way anybody else I know does it too (with maybe slight variations, barley, mince etc.)

BazMo, I don't know what you're getting at tbh.

First, beef stew isn't Irish stew. Irish stew is a sheep-based stew - so lamb or hogget or mutton.

Second, boiling meat on the hob for a few hours is a surefire way to make it tough as boot leather. If you want to turn tough cuts tender, never let them boil. Keep the cooking low and slow. My recipe has lamb instead of beef, but has potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, thyme, parsley - all the ingredients you've indicated.

And I'm not talking about using lamb cutlets:

1174388137lamb%20cutlets.jpg

I'm talking about something like lamb forequarter chops:

They're a different cut of meat. It's like using shin of beef in a stew - just because it's a large, red piece of beef, that doesn't make it a steak. Just beause forequarter or gigot chops have the word 'chop' in the title, that doesn't mean they're exclusively for the grill.

If you try making an Irish stew the way I've described it, you'll never go back to the "boil the bejesus out of it on the hob for hours" method again.

PS: Apologies for the ginormous graphic of lamb cutlets, but I can't find a small image.

BaZmO* · 28-01-2008 2:18pm

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

BazMo, I don't know what you're getting at tbh.

I wasn't having a go, I was just genuinely curious about lamb being used in a Stew.
I suppose I'm just so used to having beef for eons that I just thought it was the norm. (but no one uses it, preferring beef)
Just done a straw poll in work and yeah apparently lamb is the traditional way.

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Second, boiling meat on the hob for a few hours is a surefire way to make it tough as boot leather. If you want to turn tough cuts tender, never let them boil.

I never said boil though.

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

And I'm not talking about using lamb cutlets:

Ah I know the difference alright, but having said that, my ignorance with regards to a Lamb Stew would suggest otherwise!!

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

If you try making an Irish stew the way I've described it, you'll never go back to the "boil the bejesus out of it on the hob for hours" method again.

I dunno, I will try it your way but it'd take an AWFUL lot to beat my mother's Stew! (She doesn't boil it either!!

)

noby · 28-01-2008 2:39pm

Lamb may be the tradition, but it's basically a cheap cut of meat, spuds and veg cooked in a pot. I think it's the kind of dish that's difficult to make hard and fast rules about; there's probably a million and one regional (even family) variations.

For what it's worth, we always used beef here.

The Sweeper · 28-01-2008 9:20pm

noby wrote: »

Lamb may be the tradition, but it's basically a cheap cut of meat, spuds and veg cooked in a pot. I think it's the kind of dish that's difficult to make hard and fast rules about; there's probably a million and one regional (even family) variations.

For what it's worth, we always used beef here.

I'm going to make a stand on this one, partly because of the other thread that was on here about traditional Irish cooking where many posters responded with "Eh, not much. Dunno." There is actually a great tradition of a lot of extremely enjoyable Irish dishes, and it needs to be celebrated.

Traditional Irish Stew is a sheep-based stew, and no other meat. Saying otherwise is like saying you're making traditional chicken chow mein but you use spaghetti instead of noodles.

Beef stew is a completely different dish - when we had simple beef stew at home it was melting chunks of beef in a rich, thick, brown gravy with potatoes and carrots. (I must try making it again soon actually, I haven't made a beef stew without the addition of stocks, wines, ports, guinness or something else to the liquid in years.)

kerash · 28-01-2008 9:25pm

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I'm going to make a stand on this one, partly because of the other thread that was on here about traditional Irish cooking where many posters responded with "Eh, not much. Dunno." There is actually a great tradition of a lot of extremely enjoyable Irish dishes, and it needs to be celebrated.

Traditional Irish Stew is a sheep-based stew, and no other meat. Saying otherwise is like saying you're making traditional chicken chow mein but you use spaghetti instead of noodles.

Beef stew is a completely different dish - when we had simple beef stew at home it was melting chunks of beef in a rich, thick, brown gravy with potatoes and carrots. (I must try making it again soon actually, I haven't made a beef stew without the addition of stocks, wines, ports, guinness or something else to the liquid in years.)

Ah, dont be getting in a stew about it!!!!:D
Seriously tho, those are some good recipies there, and lamb is traditional and has a different flavour to the old beef stew, it's nice for a chang sometime,anyway i usually throw all lamb, spuds, carrot, onion, stock cube water into a pot, stew for couple of hrs on hob and hope for d best!!

Ponster · 28-01-2008 10:07pm

kerash wrote: »

Ah, dont be getting in a stew about it!!!!:D
Seriously tho, those are some good recipies there, and lamb is traditional...

As much as Minesajackdaniels doesn't like people referring to Irish Stew with 'beef' in it, I feel the same way about lamb.

Lamb is a 'new' meat to these isles, becoming very popular in the 1980's.

I have no problem with using it in a stew but while it may seem anal, a traditional Irish Stew is made of mutton, not lamb.

kerash · 29-01-2008 12:12am

Lamb only came to Ireland in the 1980's?:D

mayb it's mutton dressed as Lamb!!

which came first, the mutton or the Lamb?

Ah sure you might as well be hung for a sheep as a Lamb!!!;)

Talliesin · 29-01-2008 12:21am

kerash wrote: »

Lamb only came to Ireland in the 1980's?:D

So much for the suggested etymology of Imbolg being "Ewe's milk"!

The Sweeper · 29-01-2008 2:28am

Ponster wrote: »

I have no problem with using it in a stew but while it may seem anal, a traditional Irish Stew is made of mutton, not lamb.

Good point. Saying that, do you find mutton is easy to get in Ireland from the supermarket? Genuine question - I know I can get it down here easily enough but in Ireland it seems as though they try to pass mutton off as lamb (no pun

)

noby · 29-01-2008 9:31am

MAJD, I understand what you're saying, and lamb (or mutton) has become the meat of choice when making "Traditional Irish Stew", but back through the generations familys made a stew from cheap cuts of meat. A lot of these families used, and still use, beef. This mightn't conform with current recipes, but this was a time of cooking what your mother cooked.

C Fodder · 29-01-2008 9:52am

Traditional Irish stew is a watery boiled stew almost soup based on mutton, carrots, onions and potatoes, a thick brown stew based on beef or lamb cooked with whatever veg was available in a pot over an open fire, a casserole dish of beef or lamb pieces cooked with onions and covered with layers of potato. In other words there are as many recipies as there as many grannies in Ireland that have always their Irish stew this way. I know of a few families from one area where the traditional stew uses bacon as its main base. The convention of using only lamb (originally mutton) in Irish stew came from english cookbooks attempting to differentiate between different types of single pot stews.

Ponster · 29-01-2008 10:12am

kerash wrote: »

Lamb only came to Ireland in the 1980's?:D

Up until recent times lamb wasn't used all that much in stews with mutton being the prefered meat (cheaper and more suited to stewing I guess). In the 80's New Zealand pumped a lot of money into ads in Ireland/UK to encourage us to buy their lamb and since it's become harder to find mutton with so much cheapish lamb around. This was the second wave of NZ ads (the first appearing in newspapers in the 1960s).

> Good point. Saying that, do you find mutton is easy to get in Ireland from the supermarket?

No idea but in France you can find it almost everywhere. In fact it's not all that easy to get cheap cuts of lamb for stewing.

noby · 29-01-2008 10:28am

I wonder, does mutton have a certain stigma attached to it now in Ireland? A kind of mutton=cheap thing.

Minder · 29-01-2008 1:40pm

I agree with MAJD - Irish Stew is made with sheep, not beef. Champ is made with spuds, not sweet potatoes, coddle is made with pork, not goat - these are the recipes that are easily identified as being irish and we should be protective of them and their origins.

Irish stew - barley, or no barley; that's an argument worth having, but lamb (sheep) vs beef? Find me a recipe on the internet for Traditional Irish Stew that uses beef.

Dizzyblonde · 29-01-2008 1:45pm

noby wrote: »

I wonder, does mutton have a certain stigma attached to it now in Ireland? A kind of mutton=cheap thing.

Even when I was a child, mutton had a stigma attached to it - it was seen as 'poor people's meat'. I believe it's also very tough.
Irish Stew in our house was always made with beef, and I use beef. Originally it was a lamb dish though.

noby · 29-01-2008 1:48pm

Minder wrote: »

Find me a recipe on the internet for Traditional Irish Stew that uses beef.

You see, that's the difference. I'm agreeing that published recipe's for Traditional Irish Stew(™) call for sheep of some sort.
Whereas my nan never got to post her recipe on the internet for Irish stew.

Ponster · 29-01-2008 1:49pm

noby wrote: »

I wonder, does mutton have a certain stigma attached to it now in Ireland? A kind of mutton=cheap thing.

Yep, I'm 99% sure that this is the case. "Why buy mutton when you can afford lamb"? was asked once of me in a bar in Carlow.

noby · 29-01-2008 1:50pm

Mutton is a little tougher, which, I guess, makes it ideal for stewing.

BaZmO* · 29-01-2008 1:56pm

Minder wrote: »

Find me a recipe on the internet for Traditional Irish Stew that uses beef.

But that's the thing, when does something become "Traditional" after 5 years? 10 years? 100 years?

And also, I wouldn't use the internet as the gospel truth when it came to anything.

Minder · 29-01-2008 1:57pm

noby wrote: »

You see, that's the difference. I'm agreeing that published recipe's for Traditional Irish Stew(™) call for sheep of some sort.
Whereas my nan never got to post her recipe on the internet for Irish stew.

She may also make Duck A L'orange with chicken, but it doesn't make it so.:D

Minder · 29-01-2008 2:02pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

But that's the thing, when does something become "Traditional" after 5 years? 10 years? 100 years?

I doubt that the origins of Irish Stew as a peasant food included the use of beef. Sheep and goats are cheaper to buy and keep.

BaZmO* wrote: »

And also, I wouldn't use the internet as the gospel truth when it came to anything.

I used the internet because it is easy to demonstrate the point - published Irish Stew recipes use sheep.

meditraitor · 29-01-2008 2:12pm

Im of the same view as some of the less-Irish stew educated folks, we always had beef in the stew(the ma didnt call it Irish Stew, just stew).
Actually the first time I tasted stew with lamb/mutton/arse in it I was in vancouver and questioned the ingredients then.
It seems lamb is the ingredient that is most associated with IRISH stew but in ours(gaff) beef was alway and will always be the meat for STEW.

Ponster · 29-01-2008 3:20pm

Hmmm, asking when 'traditionally'is isn't that easy a question but I'd say that Mrs Beeton's Irish Stew recipe which calls for "Loin or Neck of Mutton" is probably 'traditional'.

Irish Stew isn't supposed to be a fancy dish and as with most 'plain' dishes it uses the cheapest cuts of meat, allowed to cook until juicy and tender. The French version 'traditionally' uses beef cheeks but you can bey your life that few bother with that cut even though it's still available. why would you put beef cheeks in a stew when you can afford steak? I can understand the thought process but IMHO it can sometimes be a waste of a good cut to have it simmering in water for a couple of hours

So I guess that if your grandmother made it with beef and her mother before her then maybe you came from a more well-off family than those that had to do with mutton?

kerash · 29-01-2008 7:55pm

To be honest, if someone said they made me stew, i'd assume it was beef, but if they said they made Irish stew, i'd assume lamb/mutton something sheep derived anyway!!

I'd also automatically assume it had be "stewed" on a top of hob/aga etc not in an oven...

If they said casserole, i'd think it's been cooked in an oven!!

the point is, i think everyone's idea of a stew seems to be different, depending on what they have been brought up on or their personal preference etc.

Dizzyblonde · 29-01-2008 9:07pm

kerash wrote: »

the point is, i think everyone's idea of a stew seems to be different, depending on what they have been brought up on or their personal preference etc.

Very true. My grandmother always said that the two things you never eat in anyone else's house are stew and Christmas pudding because they can vary so much from one family to another. What's delicious to one person can be revolting to someone else! :eek:

mildews · 29-01-2008 9:15pm

Ah! Irish Stew, the cause of many a heated debate,,,

Traditionally there were three ingredients.

1 Mutton (not Lamb, Beef, pig, Child or Mother-in-law)
2 Potatoes
3 Onions

oh yea, and water.

Mutton is the meat from a castrated sheep of one year old and over...OUCH!!:eek:
Lamb was never used as why would you use an animal that would feed 20 when you could wait a year, get some wool off it, kill it and it would feed 60+ and keep them warm. And why would you use a "Ewe" as this gave milk (For your Porridge) and baby sheep.

Potatoes and onions were the staple foods of the time.

Carrots and celery!!!!! Never.. these people didn't know what they were!!
Barley was sometimes used depending on where you came from. or if you could afford it. The only herbs that were used were the ones growing wild and generally you wouldn't get them in winter.. No posh herb gardens here.:D

The Sweeper · 29-01-2008 10:09pm

I will absolutely accept all criticisms of my recipe as being non-traditional based on using lamb instead of mutton, going in the oven instead of on the hob and including carrots and celery. I'm still rejecting the beef suggestion as the devil's work.

The herb end of things - parsley, rosemary and thyme are indeed mediterranean herbs, but I'm unsure when they were effectively introduced to Ireland and ran riot so they could be found growing wild. (You should be glad I didn't recommend using only parsely and lemon thyme.)

To me, the question is what is traditional cookery is something that should span two camps. The first is the historically accurate camp - the one that says all you could afford was mutton, and onions and potatoes, and you boiled the lot in water and added some salt, if you had some. By 'historically' I don't necessarily mean 'What my mom made it like'. I like the 1700s as a century for classing 'historical', purely because it's when a lot of people started making a concerted effort to write their recipes down.

The second camp is the 'modern improvements with faithfulness to the spirit of the recipe' camp. For instance, I can now easily get my hands on thyme and rosemary, which I know taste good, and carrots and celery, ditto, and sea salt and cracked black pepper, so I add these into the recipe. I also go for lamb, instead of mutton, because it's easier to source. I leave out barley because of the flatulence issue (same with dried soup mix and other store cupboard bloaters).

I believe there's a step too far on modern improvements as well, and if you take that step you should stop using the word 'traditional' completely. I've had some variations on Irish Stew when eating out that stopped me in my tracks. They included some, or on one memorable occasion all, of the following in the recipe:

Guinness
Parsnips
Leeks
Pork and leek sausages (this actaully tastes really good, but it's so not Irish Stew)
Dumplings (again with the tasting good but the not being Irish Stew)
Enough salt to kill a donkey (but that could just have been because the kitchens weren't tasting anything that day)

noby · 30-01-2008 9:56am

MAJD, see my post of 12.48 yesterday. I'm not fighting to keep the word Traditional in the title. But to me, putting it in the oven is as "wrong" as using beef.

Now I'm no historian, but perhaps back in the 1700's every family had a sheep or a goat, but going back, say, 100 years ago a lot of people lived in an urban environment, and went to their butchers. Perhaps that's when the cheap cuts of beef started to be used (by some families, obviously).

BaZmO* · 30-01-2008 10:36am

noby wrote: »

Now I'm no historian, but perhaps back in the 1700's every family had a sheep or a goat, but going back, say, 100 years ago a lot of people lived in an urban environment, and went to their butchers.

Was watching Reeling in the Years a while back and they were doing some year in the late sixties or early seventies and I was surprised to see a statistic that said something like 60 or 70% of the people living in Ireland lived on a farm at the time.

As for the "Traditional" debate, it's obvious at this stage that it's a very difficult thing to quantify. Even the people that claim that they make a "Traditional Irish Stew" have shown that even their version is a variation on the original, whatever that is!

Minder · 30-01-2008 4:04pm

Intensive farming of beef leading to significantly reduced prices for beef is relatively new. Lamb or mutton prices have always been cheaper if the same cuts are compared.

qwertyphobia · 30-01-2008 4:24pm

Another vote for sheep over beef here. I am suprissed people are even debating it. I think only one person has mentioned barley being added, I would have said thats a key feature of an Irish stew.

So where do people find mutton in Dublin to buy?

Mr. Presentable · 30-01-2008 5:12pm

Ballymaloe Irish Stew
Ingredients
2-1/2 to 3 lbs (1.35kg) lamb chops (gigot or rack chops) not less than 1 inch (2.5cm) thick
8 medium or 12 baby carrots
8 medium or 12 baby onions
8 to 12 potatoes, or more if you like
salt and freshly ground pepper
1-1/4 to1-1/2 pints (750 ml-900 ml/3-33/4 cups) stock (lamb stock if possible) or water
1 sprig of thyme
1 Tbsp roux, optional - see recipe
Garnish
1 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley
1 Tbsp freshly chopped chives

Roux
4 ozs butter
4 ozs flour

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/regulo 4. Cut the chops in half and trim off some of the excess fat. Set aside. Render down the fat on a gentle heat in a heavy pan (discard the rendered down pieces).

Peel the onions and scrape or thinly peel the carrots (if they are young you could leave some of the green stalk on the onion and carrot). Cut the carrots into large chunks, or if they are small leave them whole. If the onions are large, cut them into quarters through the root, if they are small they are best left whole.

Toss the meat in the hot fat on the pan until it is slightly brown. Transfer the meat into a casserole, then quickly toss the onions and carrots in the fat. Build the meat, carrots and onions up in layers in the casserole, carefully season each layer with freshly ground pepper and salt. De-glaze the pan with lamb stock and pour into the casserole. Peel the potatoes and lay them on top of the casserole, so they will steam while the stew cooks. Season the potatoes. Add a sprig of thyme, bring to the boil on top of the stove, cover with a butter wrapper or paper lid and the lid of the saucepan. Transfer to a moderate oven or allow to simmer on top of the stove until the stew is cooked, 1 to 1-1/2 hours approx, depending on whether the stew is being made with lamb or hogget.

When the stew is cooked, pour off the cooking liquid, de-grease and reheat in another saucepan. Slightly thicken by whisking in a little roux if you like. Check seasoning, then add chopped parsley and chives. Pour over the meat and vegetables. Bring the stew back up to boiling point and serve from the pot or in a large pottery dish.

Melt the butter and cook the flour in it for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Use as required. Roux can be stored in a cool place and used as required or it can be made up on the spot if preferred. It will keep at least a fortnight in a refrigerator.

P. Breathnach · 18-02-2008 12:51am

I make Irish stew for visitors, and use lamb. But I want to make it with mutton! That's the real deal. So I ask the same question as qwertphobia: where can I buy mutton?

I'm in the north-east, but am in Dublin often enough, and would happily buy it there.

Maybe I should go to Wicklow and look for roadkill.

And I plan to include carrots.

Beerlao · 19-02-2008 5:09pm

i'm not saying what is right and what is wrong, all i'm going to say is... the only places i've ever had lamb in stew have been in pubs and restaurants... any time i've had it at my house or someone else's it's always been beef.

still no word of that pizza recipe though!!

LINKY.V.18 · 20-02-2008 3:08pm

First of all it must be sheep, lamb or mutton, it doesn't matter these days too much (you'd swear they were two different animals they way some have argued).
There are two types of stews, white or brown. If you brown your meat and add red wine and brown stock that's referred to as a brown stew and its wrong. In traditional Irish stew the lamb (or mutton) is just added to water with onions, salt/pepper and some lamb bone. Then the potatoes bit: some are chopped very finely and others are left whole. The small pieces will disintegrate during the long slow cooking and thicken the liquid (this is crucial). Anything beyond that is just adding on. Although if I was making it myself I would put in carrots and celery cause they make it better and some herbs too. But its unnecessary. Thats it, end of discussion. :cool:

P. Breathnach · 21-02-2008 12:42am

LINKY.V.18 wrote: »

First of all it must be sheep, lamb or mutton, it doesn't matter these days too much (you'd swear they were two different animals they way some have argued).... But its unnecessary. Thats it, end of discussion.

No, it's not the end of the discussion. Mutton and lamb are so different that they might as well be different animals.

Spastafarian · 21-02-2008 5:46am

Here's my fantastically brilliant traditional irish stew recipe.
Remember: NO GARLIC!! A stew with garlic is not Irish Stew. It's some french nonsense.

Anyway;

Ingredients

Big hunks of lamb
1 big onion
2 - 3 peeled carrots
2 - 3 big peeled spuds
1 small turnip
1 stick of celery
small bunch of thyme
1/2 a small can of Guinness
1 - 1 and a 1/2 pints of good non-salty beef buillion

Method

Fry the lamb hunks in a bit of oil and a bit of butter in a big pot until browned. Take out and set aside.
Cut the onion in half, dice one half kinda finely and chop the other half roughly. Fry with chopped celery until golden.
Add the lamb and fry for a bit.
Add the Guinness and cook until you can't smell the booze anymore. Don't add to much or the stew will end up tasting like cigarettes.
Add most of the stock, tie up the bunch of thyme and place it on top.
Stew gently for about 45 minutes and take out the thyme.
Stew for another hour and a half to 2 hours.
Cut the spuds in quarters and cut the carrots in big chunks, cut the turnip in smallish chunks.
Add the veg and more stock if needed, stew gently until it's all well cooked.
Season with salt and pepper and serve with some buttery soda bread and a pint of Guinness.

Tragedy · 21-02-2008 6:40am

Whats irish stew with beef called?

My mum uses a recipe that her grandmother used(circa late 1800's) and its beef all the way, dont think i've ever had irish stew so.

P. Breathnach · 21-02-2008 11:19am

Tragedy wrote: »

Whats irish stew with beef called?

I call it beef stew or brown stew. It's Irish stew only as a geographic fact, not as a culinary fact.

Spastafarian · 21-02-2008 10:51pm

Tragedy wrote: »

Whats irish stew with beef called?

Lancashire hotpot.

dSTAR · 27-11-2008 9:50am

Just pointed in the direction of this thread.

Plenty of food for thought. The Ballymaloe Irish Stew sounds delish.

Now to impress my Aussie girlfriend

:pac:

Red Sleeping Beauty · 30-11-2008 4:47am

My Ma's recipe seems to be very un-traditional. She uses some kidney soup I think. Of the knorr or Erin variety. She puts barley and some herbs in and uses mince meat balls, carrots and of course spuds.

Has anyone any idea how old the Guinness going into stew would be ? I assume it was a luxury in the old country ?

kerash · 01-12-2008 3:44am

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

My Ma's recipe seems to be very un-traditional. She uses some kidney soup I think. Of the knorr or Erin variety. She puts barley and some herbs in and uses mince meat balls, carrots and of course spuds.

Has anyone any idea how old the Guinness going into stew would be ? I assume it was a luxury in the old country ?

I have to say I'm intrigued by the kidney soup?

Moving on - ah the old debate, I think we've concluded that sheep is associated with Irish stew, but we've all made the old beef stew and enjoyed it. Your ma's recipe sounds nice, but I'm not so keen on barley but I'm lead to believe that is traditional, but not often used imo. Mince meat balls - what kind of meat? beef I'll presume.
I dont know about the Guinness, but I'd guess that it wouldn't have been used too often back in the day? I've never had an Irish stew with Guinness in it either.

Red Sleeping Beauty · 01-12-2008 3:47am

Yeah , she just uses some Knorr soup of some kind, I think it varies as the consistency is different. It would be beef mince yeah and she only puts one whole onion in the pressure cooker with the rest of it and then takes it out before serving.

kerash · 01-12-2008 3:52am

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

Yeah , she just uses some Knorr soup of some kind, I think it varies as the consistency is different. It would be beef mince yeah and she only puts one whole onion in the pressure cooker with the rest of it and then takes it out before serving.

Hmm, I shall have to investigate - I've had oxtail but I'm ignorant to the kidney:D
If it's beef its not 'traditional' Irish (imo), but it sounds like a tasty dinner! Is this a handed down recipe or...

Proper Irish Stew

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