Irish Stew

I don’t know how the weather is where you are, but it’s been deep into fall here. There was a week or so of Indian summer, but the rest of the season has been rainy and cold or windy and cold. This is the time to start thinking about warm comfort food. Chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, vegetable soup, and soup beans with cornbread all meet the specifications. But one of the best comfort foods, to my way of thinking, is Irish stew.

Ingredients laid out and ready to cook

In Appalachia, it’s proper to stew any kind of meat available. Domestic meats like beef, lamb, and pork are all made into hearty stews. Hunting in the fall is an Appalachian cultural fixture. Many businesses close on the first day of deer season because they know there won’t be enough employees at work to operate, and even fewer customers. Any game you can shoot or trap has been made into a stew. When the economy is tough, you will see more wild game stews. I know there is a yuck factor for folks who weren’t raised on this food, but venison, elk, bear, squirrel, and raccoon have all been used for delicious stews. In hard times and in poor neighborhoods, you will even run into the occasional groundhog or possum stew.

In addition to the meat, stew uses any number of vegetables. The common ones include potatoes, carrots, and onions. But mountain stews often include turnips, celery, peas, corn, and tomatoes. In the days before the chestnut blight killed off our native Chestnut trees, chestnuts were also commonly included. Many herbs and spices are routinely included in a stew. Common ones include parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, turmeric, cinnamon, and garlic. If the meat is lamb, mint is often used.

Although genuine Irish stew is most often prepared using lamb, I don’t often get to fix it that way in my home. My wife just doesn’t like lamb. I usually fix mine with beef and that’s the way I’ll present the recipe here. I’m calling it Irish stew because my only departure is to use beef. A good Irish stew generally uses Guinness Stout in the stewing liquid. I use it, but I just don’t tell my wife because she’d probably refuse to eat it before she gave it a chance.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 3 hours
Start to finish: 3 1/2 hours

Ingredients (Mise en Place)

·         2 pounds of beef stew meat

·         1 tablespoon vegetable oil like Canola

·         1 bottle Guinness Stout

·         Beef stock as needed

·         1 bay leaf

·         1 sprig fresh rosemary

·         1 sprig fresh thyme

·         2 pounds potatoes (recommend Yukon Golds or New Reds)

·         1 large yellow onion

·         1 1/2 pounds carrots

·         1 teaspoon Kosher salt

·         1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

·         All-purpose flour to thicken the stock if necessary

Directions

Browning the meat in batches

Heat a large (6 quart or so) Dutch oven on medium to medium high heat with the tablespoon of oil added. Brown the meat in the pan in batches so the meat doesn’t steam. Cook each batch until the meat is evenly browned. Remove each batch with a slotted spoon to a bowl and reserve. When the last batch is browned, leave it in the pan and add the reserved meat back to the pan. Add the bottle of Guinness and enough beef stock to just cover the meat. Add the bay leaf, rosemary, and thyme. Turn the heat to high until the liquid starts to boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and let simmer for 2 hours.

Some cooks put the liquid in the pan to start with, add the meat raw, and bring to a simmer. I would discourage this practice. Conventional wisdom says that browning, or searing, the surface of the meat seals in the juices. This is not true, but searing does, however, produce new and complex flavor compounds as the sugars and proteins in the meat react under high temperatures and the surface color deepens. This browning reaction is known as the Maillard reaction and it makes the flavor of the stew much richer. It won’t happen if you just poach the meat.

While the meat is simmering, medium chop half of your potatoes (about 3/4 to 1 inch cubes) and cut the other half into larger pieces. I don’t bother to peel my potatoes because I use Yukon Golds and the skin isn’t a problem, plus I like the flavor and texture of the skins. If you’re using a potato with a thicker skin like a russet, you might want to peel them although it’s not necessary. Finely chop about 1/4 of the onions and cut the rest into larger pieces. Place the finer pieces of onion in a bowl, cover, and reserve until just before the stew is finished. Peel the carrots and cut into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch pieces. When the meat has simmered for two hours, remove the bay leaf, rosemary, and thyme. Then add all the potatoes, the large pieces of onion, the carrots, and the salt and pepper to the pan. Bring back to a simmer and cook for another hour. By cutting the potatoes into small and large pieces, your broth will thicken as the smaller pieces cook more quickly and release their starch into the stew.

At this point, check the meat to be sure it’s tender enough for you. If not, you can simmer it a little longer. Also make sure your broth is thick enough for you. If not, add 3 or 4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and let the stew cook until the broth thickens up. Add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it. As soon as the stew is ready, add the smaller pieces of onion, remove from the heat, and let the pan rest for 15 minutes or so, just long enough to take the bite out of the newly-added onion.

Serve the stew in bowls with buttermilk biscuits from the previous recipe. If you are so inclined, you could also prepare dumplings and cook them on top of the stew just before serving. Other side dishes could include a red cabbage salad or pickled red cabbage.

Cooking Notes

Ready to eat!

Prepare the recipe the way I’ve laid it out here first. As you eat it, think about what other flavors you would like in your stew that I haven’t provided with these ingredients.

If you don’t like the idea of Guinness in the stew, leave it out. Add 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce instead and use more beef stock to make up for the loss of liquid volume.

If you want to make a more traditional Irish stew, use lamb instead of beef. If you use lamb, you might want to garnish the dish with some freshly chopped mint.

Make this a more mountain style stew by using turnips instead of potatoes. Trust me, they are delicious.

Try this recipe as a pork stew sometime. Add some corn with the other vegetables.

There are enough permutations and combinations of ingredients here to keep you having a different, comforting stew all winter long.