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Scotch Mutton Broth

A hearty broth made with mutton, barley, carrots, turnips, onions, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine scrag of mutton and 3 quarts of water in a stewpan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 hours.

  4. Add the cutlets.

  5. Skim the broth when the meat boils and every 10 minutes thereafter.

Add vegetables and barley

  1. Add carrots, turnips, and onions, ensuring they cook thoroughly.

  2. Stir in barley and season with salt.

  3. Let everything stew together for 3.5 hours.

  4. About 30 minutes before serving, add chopped parsley.

Serve

  1. Cut the meat from the scrag into small pieces.

  2. Serve the small pieces in the tureen with the soup.

  3. Serve the remaining mutton on a separate dish with whole boiled turnips around it.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers slowly.
Barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving it a fuller texture.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour to the broth as they soften during the long stew.
Turnips
Add a mild sweetness and soft, tender body to the broth.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Skim the broth regularly. Skimming removes the grey foam and fat that rise as the meat cooks, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, barley, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, barley, parsley. 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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