Irish Stew

So what about meat and potatoes is so important to the Irish? What's great about a good traditional Irish dish is its simplicity. For the most part, there are only a few ingredients, a sparce use of spices (except salt and pepper), and the chance to walk away from the dish and come back to it hours later. Take Irish stew, for example. Irish stew was actually a peasant dish long ago-mainly because it consisted of mostly water, sheep, which farmers often raised, and potatoes, which they harvested. the Irish peasants often used sheep/mutton neckbones or shanks as the basis for the stock. (Mutton is a sheep that is over 2 years old and tends to be more tender) As is pointed out in this article on Traditional Irish Stew , these animal leftovers were not waste for the Irish farmers and herfders. Irish stews also saw the use of onions and parsley for additional flavoring. Peasants could let stew sit for hours to absord the flavor and in times of famine, they would have "leftovers" to hold them over.

Today there are many ways to prepare Irish stew. Some people enhance the flavor and fullness by adding vegetables such as celery or carrots and some may even add food options that are more hearty like dumplings (flour, water, butter and salt mixed together and placed on top of stew during last 30 minutes to soak up stew and simmer).

Regardless of the what you add, remember stew is meant to be simple and easy--but very, very tasty too! Enjoy.