Skip to main content
Main

Scots Broth

A barley and cabbage soup seasoned with salt, herbs, and butter, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cabbage and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,001 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Scots Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the barley and soak it for 3 hours.

Cook the broth

  1. In a pot, combine the soaked barley, chopped cabbage, chopped onion, and water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then season with salt and herbs.

  3. Let it boil for 2 hours, adding more water if it becomes too thick.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter before serving with croutons.

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. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Barley + cabbagetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Barley + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Barley + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering, giving body to the soup.
Cabbage
Adds mild sweetness and soft texture as it cooks down into the broth.
Onion
Builds savory depth and aroma as it softens in the simmering liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Adding water during the 2-hour boil. Barley keeps absorbing liquid and releasing starch as it simmers, so the broth can turn too thick and pasty. Adding water as needed keeps the texture loose and the barley tender.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, onion, butter):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, onion, butter. 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.

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes