I pulled out Maine Coastal Cooking, a cookbook that my mother purchased 2 years before I was born, and decided to make something out of it. The cook book has recipes dating all the way back to 1664 and contains a small book at the end titled The Accomplished Cook: The Art and Mystery of Cookery.

I decided to make an Irish Stew. There were two variants of this recipe and I chose to go with the beef and vegetable version. Yet again I decided to make a recipe that required the use of a vegetable that I hadn’t worked with before, the turnip. I used a regular turnip instead of a yellow turnip because when I bought turnips I didn’t know that yellow turnips were actually ruddebegga. The things I learn about when I decide to look in my cookbooks…

I used half the amount of beef and smaller potatoes. The next time I think I will increase the amount of carrots. I let the meat and onions simmer for about 2 hours before adding the remaining vegetables and simmering for another half hour. The meat was tender and the vegetables had just enough firmness to them.

Irish Stew

Adapted from Maine Coastal Cooking

• 2 lbs top of the round beef
• 1 large onion
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 2 carrots, diced
• 4 potatoes, pared and sliced
• 3 slices of yellow turnip
• 4 Tbsp flour

Wipe the beef and cut into small pieces. reserve the edge trimmings to try out. Roll the pieces of beef in flour and sear in the fat. Place the meat in a kettle with the onion, salt and pepper. Cover with about 2 quarts of cold water and simmer until meat is tender. Add the carrots, the potatoes and turnip. Moisten the flour cold water to form a paste. Add to stew and allow to simmer until slightly thickened. At this point, care is required that the stew does not burn. Bring to the boiling point and serve. The flour paste may be omitted if you prefer.