Irish stew
1
2.5
- noun
:
estofado irlandés
- A better question is: Did Irish stew in the early seventeenth century have potatoes in it?
Examples
-
Irish stew has potatoes, while goatwater gets its starch thickening from a slurry of raw flour added toward the end of the cooking.
Academic text (1992) -
She made casseroles, pies, Irish stew, stuffed chicken, and pepper steak—anything to please her son.
Fiction book (1997) -
"There," a stout Irish girl was ladling forth an Irish stew.
Academic text (2003) -
An Irish stew is conventionally a lamb stew.
Academic text (1992) -
Be careful not to overdo it, however: Irish stew is a thick stew and should not drown in its own broth.
Academic text (1992) -
The celebrated Parisian restaurateur Denis once told me he considered the omission of an initial browning stage for the lamb in Irish stew to be its defining characteristic.
Academic text (1992) -
My mom makes the best Irish stew in town.
-
Classic Irish stew is the cornerstone of Irish farmhouse cooking.
-
Be careful not to overdo it, however: Irish stew is a thick stew and should not drown in its own broth.
Synonyms
110
1.0
A dish of meat or fish and vegetables cooked slowly in liquid
2
9.9
A thick soup or stew made from vegetables and sometimes meat, often eaten in the past
1
9.3
A thick Irish stew with meat and vegetables
1
2.7
A thick, filling soup with meat and vegetables, often with beans or rice
1
8.4
A thick dish people make from whatever meat and vegetables they have
A hot dish where meat and vegetables cook slowly in a tasty liquid
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound simply combines 'Irish' (of or from Ireland) with 'stew' (a meat-and-vegetable dish), so its meaning — a stew associated with Ireland — is directly derivable from the parts. This origin-adjective + food-noun pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the MWE despite any specific cultural ingredients.
Etymology
Irish stew comes from Ireland's country kitchens, where families cooked cheap meat like lamb with potatoes and onions slowly in one pot. Because it was a simple, slow-cooked mix of those ingredients, Irish stew now means 'a hearty, slow-cooked dish of meat and vegetables'.