Irish Stew

Variations

• Beef stew: Use beef shin instead of lamb.
• Guinness stew: Add stout for a rich, deep braise.
• With dumplings: Drop in flour dumplings to make it heartier.
• Oven braise: Cover and cook low and slow in the oven.

Tips

• Brown the meat well first for deeper savory flavor.
• Simmer low and slow for tender meat — don't rush it.
• Add the potatoes later so they don't fall apart (mash a few in to thicken).
• Thin broth? Reduce it uncovered or stir in mashed potato.
• It tastes even better the next day.
• The flour on the meat is doing three jobs, and none of them is obvious. Dusting a wet surface dries it, and a dry surface is the condition for browning at all; the flour itself browns readily, so it adds colour the meat alone would take longer to reach; and it ends up in the pot, where it is the recipe's only added thickener. That is the singer method — flour onto the meat rather than cooked into fat first as a roux (thickening) — and two tablespoons over four cups of stock is a light hand, which is exactly why the tip below has to offer reducing as a fallback.
• The other thickener is not added at all, and the page half says so. "Mash a few in" works because a floury potato gives up starch once it has broken down, and that starch thickens broth the way no amount of simmering will. Caldo verde does the same thing on purpose and blends the lot; here you are choosing how far along that road to go, which is also why the potatoes go in an hour late and cut large.
• The older dish has no browning in it at all. Traditional Irish stew is a white stew: mutton, potato, onion and water, no searing, no flour and no stock. Everything above — the browning, the dusting, the made stock — is the modern restaurant version, and it is worth knowing that the original is not a lesser version but a different one. Fårikål and blanquette de veau are the two dishes here that keep the older habit and argue for it.
• Neck and shoulder, not a lean cut. An hour and a half is a collagen schedule (braising), and lean lamb has none to convert, so it comes out dry and stringy in the same time. Serve with Irish soda bread, which is the standard pairing.