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Irish Stew


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Wow this is interesting.  The Irish stew I have known, cooked, is a blanquette/white construction.  Myrtle Allen (the aforereferenced Darina's mother-in-law, I believe) says she traditionally she followed the blanquette method but later came to browning the meat and using stock and so forth.  Theodora Fitzgibbon, blanquette, and layers of ingredients, and not too much liquid.  Carrots.

Searing and deglazing, conventional stew techniques, got nothing against 'em, of course.

But the beauty of blanquettes is exactly precisely their mildness.  Sometimes I like a blanquette, especially the b. de veau, just to recalibrate my palate for subtle flavors.  In fact this is going to send me to the German meat market with the fantastic veal for stew, I just know it.

The B method is much more similar to the Welsh Cawl than any Irish stew I have tried ( see link )

http://www.britannia.org/recipes/showrecip...cipeID=00000085

both sound pretty good though

S

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Well I guess we nipped that in the bud. Thank His holey name for that, Wilfrid was dangerously close to saying the following me thinks:

"No I mean types who don't really have any experience with food and are jealous of people who do. What else can explain the behavior of someone vehemently arguing about something he hasn't a diddle of experience with. That's what I mean luvy."

Yep, Wilfrid is real lucky really I pointed all this out. :smile:

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I really like to stay away from threads on subjects about which I ain't no expert. And, of course, that's most threads. :biggrin: Certainly this one.

But, my family is of Scots-Irish descent (among other things) and about the only thing my mother fixed that was really good was what she called "Irish Stew." And we'd eat buckets of it. (One night, literally, when she thought she'd at last made enough of it that she could get leftovers. She was wrong.)

So I thought I'd add my impressions.

I have long known that my mother's Irish Stew probably wasn't "authentic" but through the years, I did talk about it with her and some other people in the know just because I was curious.

Much of what I was told has been said by others in this thread. To whit -

What we know as "Irish Stew" would more properly be called "American-Irish Stew" and has changed from the authentic dish as served in Ireland for a myriad of factors.

One of which is that when the Irish came to this country, beef was more plentiful than lamb, so in the immigrant homes, most began cooking beef in the manner to which they were accustomed. Generally they could only afford tougher cuts of meat which required considerable stewing to render tender. The meat was not browned, nor was additional fat added.

It is a thick stew - made thick by the disintegration of the ingredients, primarily the softer baking "Irish potatoes," but also the flaking off of bits of the meat, carrots, celery, onions, etc., which naturally occurs over the long cooking period. The trick is to serve it at just the right time, when things have started falling apart and the broth is of a "thick-soupy" (to coin a phrase) texture, but the vegetables and meat still retain enough "togetherness" to be of good texture and taste.

It is a simple flavor. When I first started trying to replicate my mother's, I'd put all kinds of extra stuff in it: bouillon, wine, beer, half the spices from the spice rack -- you name it. But I couldn't get the same simple, delicious, comforting peasant home-kitchen flavor. So, I stopped adding all that extra stuff and just used water.

In addition to salt and pepper, my mother only put in a bay leaf. And sometimes a little thyme, but I have often been told that Irish Stew is not a highly-seasoned dish either. The flavor of the meat and vegetables is supposed to be the star, rather than the flavor of assorted added spices or herbs or wine, or other strongly-flavored ingredients.

Some things, I was told, are optional - tomatoes for one (but my family really likes them and so a can was always added), and then other vegetables, like turnips, etc. The big three (in addition to the mandatory potatoes, of course) are carrots, onions and celery.

Regardless as to what it's called, and how authentic it is, it is really good. And has always been to me a nice reminder that sometimes, in food as in life, simpler is better, and that rather than carrying you to the heights of your imagination, overdoing things can occasionally be just overdoing things.

Edited by Jaymes (log)

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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In Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking, she describes best end of neck of lamb as the "French butcher's term for the best end of neck joint, consisting of eight cutlets. It is trimmed exactly as the cutlets would be if they were to be cut separately for grilling, with the chine bone and most of the fat removed, so that only the actual cutlets with their bones are left."

I use cut-up lamb neck for all kinds of stews, tajines; this cut is very bony with a lot of fat that has to be cut off, but with slow cooking becomes very succulent. I've also left it whole and rubbed a paste of pureed cilantro, onions, garlic, paprika, cayenne, cumin and butter all over it and steamed it for about 2 hours. Do you think this comes from higher up on the neck, and that best end of neck is closer to the shoulder?

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I was just observing that it's not unheard of for regional specialities to bear the name of the region even when they're served in the region.  If you see what I mean.

Which reminds me of something that I experienced years ago after meeting up with a young couple on a flight to Heathrow. We proceeded to share a car into London and since it was about four in the morning, London time, we all went for a cup of coffee. I literally did a spit-take when they ordered coffee and toasted "English muffins". :wacko:

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I was just observing that it's not unheard of for regional specialities to bear the name of the region even when they're served in the region.  If you see what I mean.

Which reminds me of something that I experienced years ago after meeting up with a young couple on a flight to Heathrow. We proceeded to share a car into London and since it was about four in the morning, London time, we all went for a cup of coffee. I literally did a spit-take when they ordered coffee and toasted "English muffins". :wacko:

The Muffin Man

First Verse:

Oh, do you know the muffin man,

The muffin man, the muffin man,

Oh, do you know the muffin man,

That lives on Drury Lane?

Second Verse:

Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,

The muffin man, the muffin man,

Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,

That lives on Drury Lane.

Obviously, in the Brave New Wilfrid World it will have to be, "Do you know the English muffin man?"

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