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ScotcH Barley BrotH

A hearty broth made with Scotch barley, veal, onions, celery, turnips, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

ScotcH Barley BrotH

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the Scotch barley in clean water.

  2. Place the barley and knuckle of veal in a stewpan and cover with cold water.

Make the broth

  1. Bring to a slow boil, skimming the surface regularly.

  2. Add the onions and simmer for 2 hours.

  3. Skim again, then add the sliced celery and turnips.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt and let it stew for 1.5 hours.

  5. Remove the veal before serving the broth.

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. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Scotch barley
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering, giving body.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin and meaty flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, herbal flavour as it stews into the broth.
Turnips
Soften during stewing, adding mild sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the surface during the slow boil. Foam and impurities rise as the liquid heats. Skimming them early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, and skimming again after the vegetables are added removes more residue.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, veal, 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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