I-rish I'd had a bigger lunch

Ah,  St Patrick's Day -  a day on which, as tradition now dictates, people with little or no Irish heritage flock to their nearest watering hole and attempt to claim a free Guinness hat by consuming copious pints of the Emerald Isle's best known tipple.

I had no desire to join the throngs last Monday evening, instead opting to mark the occasion at home, with some traditional Irish fare. Or rather, a tin of Sainsbury's "basics" Irish Stew.

At 55p for a 392g tin I can't say I am holding out a vast amount of hope on it being the "satisfying supper" that the label promises. The drawing of a cooking pot with a pile of potatoes is at least accurate though - after water, potatoes are indeed the main ingredient (18%), followed by carrots (14%), mutton (11%), marrowfat peas (4%). The prominence given to the potatoes inevitably reminds me of the classic I'm Alan Partridge episode in which Alan offends two Irish men by suggesting the potato famine could have been avoided if their fellow countrymen had tried some other foods instead ("At the end of the day, you will pay the price if you're a fussy eater"), but it is probably quite authentic in terms of recipe - these kind of stews would very likely have followed a "simple recipe", bulked out with cheaper vegetables and just a small amount of leftover meat included (if it could be afforded at all) for extra flavour and body.

I doubt the remainder of the ingredients would have much of a place in a traditional recipe though - there are a whole load of other somewhat dubious-sounding things included, such as modified maize starch, onion powder, yeast extract (hang on, isn't that Marmite?), pepper extract (why not just use real pepper?), flavouring (best not to ask), potato starch, yeast (for what reason I have no idea, but the idea of a fermented stew really doesn't appeal), malt extract, and last but not least...rosemary.

I open the tin to reveal small cubes of carrots and potatoes lurking beneath the surface of a gloopy beige liquid, with a few white flecks of what I assume is solidified fat from the meat floating above them. Delving deeper with a spoon, I come across the pieces of mutton - a similar size to the vegetables, so again it doesn't seem like it will be a particularly substantial meal, but there is at least quite a lamby smell to the contents (by which I mean 'pleasantly meaty' rather than 'farmyardy') which I feel is quite promising.

Potato, carrot, mutton, pea

Into a saucepan it goes to warm through. By sheer coincidence, I happen to have a couple of pieces of soda bread in the freezer, and some Kerrygold butter in the fridge, which are by a fair way more authentically Irish than the tinned element of the meal itself.

As for the taste...well, there's nothing terribly offensive here. It's quite a lot of very soft veg in a rather overly-gloopy soup-like substance. The pieces of mutton are tender enough - no chewiness or gristle as I had feared - and the fatty flecks have melted away into the liquid, probably adding a decent bit of flavour to it. I wolf down the lot, but sadly still don't feel particularly satisfied - it doesn't really do what it says on the tin, therefore. But then again, it's a 55p tin from a supermarket own-brand budget range - it was never going to be the sort of hearty, warming, nourishing, homely stew you might get served in a pub in Ireland, or an even vaguely decent Irish pub anywhere else in the world. To misquote Alan Partridge, "there's more to Irish food dan dis".