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Mutton Soup

A simple soup made from mutton stock, seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional rice or noodles, finished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Mutton Soup

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Save the water used to boil the leg of mutton and let it sit overnight.

  2. Remove the grease from the top of the water.

Finish and serve

  1. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  2. If desired, add rice or noodles.

  3. Just before serving, stir in a little chopped parsley.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton broth
Provides the main savory flavor and body of the soup.

The step that matters

Removing the grease from the top of the water. Fat that has solidified on top of the chilled broth can make the soup greasy and heavy on the palate if left in. Skimming it off after the overnight rest leaves a cleaner, lighter broth.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, rice):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, rice. 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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