Irish Stew

Everyone I asked had a different recipe for Irish stew from their neighbour.  I was faced with disputes from the mutton, lamb, beef and kid lobbyists.  Arguments amongst the vegetable movement, carrots, with or without, parsnips, with or without. The one thing they all agreed on regardless of the type of meat or apiaceae used, potatoes and onions are the two most indispensable ingredients. Some people allow for parsley or pearl barley as an embellishment while others add tomato purée and/or Worcestershire sauce to boost the flavour.

I had always heard that mutton is the one and only traditional meat to go into a pot of Irish stew which brings me conveniently to the expression “Mutton dressed as lamb”.

As a young lad I first heard this expression in the barber’s shop where me and my sibling would be marched by my father, military fashion, on the first Saturday of every month with strict orders for the barber “short back and sides, no Brylcreem.” As we waited to get our hair cut on one particular Saturday morning, I overheard an exchange between the barber and an elderly gentleman who, to my youthful reasoning, had no business sitting in a barber’s chair as he was devoid of any remnants of hair from the brow of his forehead to the nape of his neck. Only a few strands of barely coloured tendrils clung for dear life on either side of his shiny dome like head just above his ears.

“Did you see thon spectacle at the chapel on Sunday? Mutton dressed as lamb. She must be nearly seventy, if not closer to eighty.” The barber sucked on his pipe contemplatively and without comment clipped back the dissociated strands of yellowing hair above his left ear.

I had no idea what was meant by this expression so I locked it away in that corner of the mind that stores useless information until one day it finds an opening for it. That day came when my mother sent me to the butchers to buy a cut of mutton shoulder. “Mutton dressed as lamb young fella, it’s Irish stew in your house tonight.” The butcher said disparagingly as he brought the meat cleaver down on the chopping board with all the skill and menace of a Samurai going into battle. “Sure why would you put a nice cut of young lamb in a stew when you can dress an auld mutton up with carrots and onions and have it looking and tasting like the lamb it used to be for half the price?” 

Suddenly the expression from the barbers shop that had been locked away at the back of my head for so many years found its opening and lurched eagerly forward to fill my thoughts with images of older women who dress and act much younger than their years. “Mutton dressed as lamb…”  Fast forward a number of years and I’m standing in my kitchen preparing my first ever pot of Irish Stew. Mutton has gone out of fashion and been replaced by red meat; the expression “mutton dressed as lamb” has been replaced with the expression “Sixty is the new forty.”

But I couldn’t leave it there, something was niggling at me. Some little thread of coincidence or connection was pulling me in a certain direction. I was curious to know who coined the phrase “Mutton dressed as lamb“. Was the man with the straw coloured hair in the barbers shop the originator of this one line take down and I witness to the birth of a new expression?

Historically, Dungannon has had a rich tradition of crafting words into proverbs, maxims and backhanded compliments dating back to its heyday when the town was the main stronghold of the O’Neill dynasty in Ulster. Did O’Neill look out from a lofty turret in his castle high above the town and announce “Would you look at thon one down there in the Market Square she’s like Mutton dressed as Lamb.” Not a very regal utterance, but then again stranger things have happened. It seems the first written account of the expression “Mutton dressed as Lamb” is found in the journal “An Irish Beauty Of The Regency” compiled in 1811 by Mrs Frances Calvert (Pery) who was the sister of Diana Jane Pery who married Thomas Knox the first Earl of Ranfurly who was born in Dungannon in 1754. To add a little more spice into this historical Irish stew, Perry street in Dungannon, misspelt with two r’s, is named after the Pery family and that much loved invitation “Come in Dungannon I know your Knock” is a play on the Knox family name. Now simmer that on an open fire for a century or so, add salt to taste and serve with a glass of chilled mead.

Irish stew

You will need

Equipment

Slow Cooker, Chopping board, Sharp knife.

Ingredients  

500g lamb stewing steak, minced meat or beef

3 onions

6 medium potatoes

4 carrots

2 beef stock cubes

3 cups of boiling water

Method

Preheat your slow cooker on HIGH.

Cut meat into small pieces.

Wash, peel and cut carrots and onions into small pieces.

Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into quarters.

Put all into the slow cooker.

Dissolve the stock cubes in boiling water then add to the pot.

Add any seasoning

TIME

8-10 hours on LOW / 4-6 hours on High

When finished you can add Worcestershire sauce as a savoury option and enjoy.