What's The Difference Between Irish Stew And Beef Stew?

Irish stew, Stobhach Gaelach in Gaelic, has become synonymous with Ireland, but it's often confused with beef stew, which is a different dish. So be sure to order the former rather than the latter at an Irish pub. While there are some similarities between the two dishes — they both have root vegetables, meat, and gravy — the big difference lies in the kind of meat that's used. Traditional Irish stew has lamb or mutton rather than beef. There are some other differences as well.

Beef stew typically has more vegetables, including carrots and celery, while some traditional cooks eschew these in Irish stew, believing the dish should solely be made with stock, meat, potatoes, onions, and parsley. Other differences include the use of tomato paste, beef broth, and red wine or stout beer in beef stew, and beef stew containing rosemary rather than parsley. Beef stew is typically thickened by cornflour, flour, or the potatoes, and Irish stew can be thickened this way, too. The similarities are obvious, but to understand just how these two dishes have become confused, we need to dig a little into Irish history.

Broths, soups, and stews have a long history in Irish cooking. Broths, or brotchan, in Gaelic, were common fare in early Ireland. And in general, the Irish relied on large three-legged cauldrons for much of their cooking. What we would recognize as Irish stew came together sometime after the popularization of the potato in Ireland in the 17th century. Some food historians believe goat meat may have been originally used in this stew. 

At some point, mutton became the standard. Today, lamb is more common, but in the past, sheep were an important commodity for their wool and milk, so only older sheep, known as mutton, would have been slaughtered. By the 1800s, Irish stew had come into its own. But when the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland beginning in 1845, sending millions of Irish fleeing to the United States, beef was a much more prevalent protein in their new home than mutton. Beef came to replace mutton in the Irish-American's version of the stew as it did with another Irish classic, shepherd's pie. From there other changes transpired to further differentiate Irish stew from beef stew. 

Besides adding beef to the classic Irish dish, some contemporary versions have taken on a more international flavor with the addition of wine, which is more typically French, or stout beer. "The Official Guinness Cookbook" even has a recipe for beef stew (cooked with Guinness, of course). Other changes include using a roux to thicken the stew rather than the more traditional method of thickening Irish stew with mashed potatoes, or in some versions, not thickening the broth at all.

The addition of other vegetables is another way in which Irish stew has become more similar to traditional beef stew. Besides carrots, some cooks add celery, turnips, leeks, and cabbage. For herbs and flavorings, while a traditional Irish stew is simply sprinkled with fresh parsley, some recipes now call for everything from chives to rosemary to garlic. In the end, like any recipe, how one makes an Irish stew comes down to personal preference, but if you want to stay true to its roots, go with mutton (or lamb) and not beef, or you'll end up with a different stew altogether.