Irish stew

Irish stew (Irish: *stobhach Gaelach*) is a stew from Ireland that traditionally uses root vegetables and lamb or mutton, though beef is now common. It is regarded as a national dish, but its exact makeup sparks debate. Purists argue that only neck mutton chops or kid, potatoes, onions, and water are acceptable; others add carrots, turnips, or pearl barley, which purists say ruins the true flavor. The ingredients are boiled and simmered slowly for up to two hours, and salt can be added before or after cooking. Mutton was historically dominant because sheep were valued for wool and milk, so only older or unproductive animals ended up in the pot, requiring long, slow cooking. This dish emerged from a tradition of cooking over an open fire, and it appears to have been recognized by about 1800.

Stewing is an ancient method common worldwide. After the cauldron was introduced from continental Europe and Britain, it—along with the established spit—became the main cooking tool in ancient Ireland, where ovens were nearly unknown. Cauldrons and flesh-hooks for suspending meat eventually replaced spits for feasts, as archaeological finds show more flesh hooks than roasting spits in Ireland and Britain. Many food historians believe mutton was originally the meat of choice, later replaced by beef. The root vegetables and meat (initially mutton) were all in place except for the potato, which arrived in Ireland around the 16th century during the Columbian exchange.

Old Irish recipes are scarce due to poor documentation, but the first known recipe for Irish stew dates to around 1800, recorded in a manuscript by the Countess of Thomond (1684–1734) and reads: "To make an Irish stew of mutton. Season the bones of a neck of mutton with pepper and salt, put it down with a layer of onions, put them in covered stewpan, to keep in the steam & as much water as will cover it. The chops must be very tender, but as they are all put down together, the potatoes must be taken out first, as they burst." A 19th-century American recipe was recorded by Helen Stuart Campbell, a professor of domestic science at Kansas State Agricultural College. She described the stew as made with boneless beef or mutton, trimmed of fat and cut into small cubes less than one inch square.