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Seasoned Mutton Broth

A broth made by simmering mutton with water, salt, sugar, onion, celery, and turnip.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Seasoned Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place mutton and water in a stewpan.

  2. Add salt, brown sugar, onion, celery, and turnip.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.

  4. Skim off any scum and fat.

  5. Strain the broth through a sieve.

  6. If too much has evaporated, add more water and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mutton + turniptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,558 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water, giving the broth its body and savoury taste.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens during the long simmer.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.
Celery
Adds a fresh, vegetal aroma that rounds out the broth's flavour.

The step that matters

Skim off any scum and fat. Scum and fat rise to the surface during simmering. Removing them keeps the broth clear and stops it tasting greasy or cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, celery, turnip):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, celery, turnip. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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