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Irish Stew
Take from two to three pounds of chops from the best end of a neck of mutton, and pare away nearly all the fat, for an Irish stew should not be greasy. If liked, a portion of the breast may be cut into squares and used, but a neck of mutton is the best joint for the purpose. Take as many potatoes as will amount after peeling to twice the weight of the meat. Slice them, and slice also eight large onions. Put a layer of mixed potatoes and onions at the bottom of a stewpan. Place the meat on this and season it plentifully with pepper and slightly with salt. Pack the ingredients closely, and cover the meat with another layer of potato and onion. Pour in as much water or stock as will moisten the topmost layer, cover the stewpan tightly, and let its contents simmer gently for three hours. Be careful not to remove the lid, as this will let out the flavour.
A layered one-pot stew that depends on steam rather than liquid, so the single most important instruction is the one Cassell puts last: leave the lid alone.
- Keep it closedThe potatoes on top are meant to cook in trapped steam, not in liquid. Lifting the lid to check or stir vents that steam, dries the upper layer and stops the starch from thickening the juices. Use a pan with a heavy, well-fitting lid and resist the urge to look.
- The jointBest end of neck of mutton is the rib section, corresponding to what is now sold as best end or rack of lamb and cut into cutlets; ordinary neck chops from further down are a cheaper, close substitute. Mutton (generally reckoned as sheep over about two years) is rare outside specialist butchers; lamb shoulder chops or a boned shoulder cut into 2-inch pieces work and will be milder and quicker to tenderise.
- ProportionsTwice the weight of meat in peeled potatoes means roughly 4-6 lb of potatoes for 2-3 lb of chops. Eight large onions is very generous by modern taste; four is closer to what most cooks now want, and the stew will still be sweet enough.
- Potato choiceUse a floury variety such as Maris Piper, King Edward or russet. They collapse partly into the liquid and give the thick, almost creamy gravy the dish is known for. All-waxy potatoes stay in neat slices and leave you with thin broth.
- Liquid"As much water or stock as will moisten the topmost layer" is deliberately little: enough to wet the top layer and no more. The onions and potatoes release a great deal of moisture. Adding more turns it into soup.
- Heat and timeThree hours at a bare simmer suits lamb neck on the bone, but on a modern gas or induction hob the bottom layer will scorch unless the flame is very low. A cast-iron casserole in a 300-325F oven is easier to control and needs no attention. Boned shoulder will be tender in about two hours.
- Seasoning"Plentifully" with pepper is not an exaggeration; pepper is the only real seasoning in the dish. Salt lightly at the start as directed, then correct at the end, particularly if you used stock rather than water.
- YieldTwo to three pounds of chops with the potatoes serves four to six as a main course.
Irish stew as it appears here is a nineteenth-century English cookbook's version of a rural Irish dish: mutton, potatoes, onions and water, cooked long and slow in one pot over a low fire. The insistence on neck of mutton is economic rather than culinary — neck is full of connective tissue that only long moist cooking will soften, and the potatoes both stretch the meat and thicken the liquid without flour. It demonstrates stewing in its purest form: no browning, no thickening, no stock necessarily, just a sealed pot and time. Purists have long argued about whether carrots, barley or a bay leaf belong in it; the version here, with nothing but meat, potato, onion and pepper, represents the strict line. The warning that the stew "should not be greasy" reflects a period when mutton fat was abundant and its flavour, in a dish eaten hot from the pot, was much stronger than the lamb most cooks now buy.