Almost all of the recipes in McCormick’s cookbook are ethnic Irish dishes, and many utilize potatoes. Potatoes are a cheap source of calories and nutrients, and for many years were a staple of the Irish diet (McCormick, 1988). McCormick’s interest in food began in his childhood, when he observed and enjoyed his mother’s traditional Irish cooking. Motivated by the success of a previously published collection of his mother’s baking recipes, McCormick decided to assemble a collection of different Irish dishes. This collection, which includes recipes for soups to mains to baked goods, became Irish Country Cooking. Many Irish dishes have very little meat, explaining why our recipe calls for a greater portion of vegetables than lamb. In fact, the use of  comparatively expensive lamb in this dish is a more recent phenomenon. Traditionally, Irish Stew was made with mutton or kid goat (McCormick, 1988).