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A Tonic Broth

A broth made by simmering mutton with vegetables and seasonings, then strained and reduced with optional sherry.

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 ↓

A Tonic Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the mutton, water, carrot, parsley stems, turnip, onion, salt, and pepper in a large pot.

  2. Cover the pot tightly to keep the steam in and boil until the meat separates from the bones.

  3. Strain the broth and let it cool, then remove the fat that collects on top.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat two-thirds of a small cupful of the broth to almost boiling.

  2. Stir in the sherry if using.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + turniptop 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
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body and richness.
Parsley stems
Add a fresh, herbal aroma to the broth without much color.
Sherry
Adds a light acidity and aroma to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Remove the fat after cooling. Fat rises and sets on top of a cooled broth, so skimming it after straining gives a clearer, less greasy result. Skimming while hot is harder to do cleanly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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