Skip to main content
Main

To Make Mutton Broth

A clear broth made by simmering mutton neck with barley, carrots, turnip, onion, celery, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Make Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a clean pan, combine the mutton and cold water.

  2. Add the washed Scotch barley.

  3. Bring to a gentle simmer over low heat for 2.5 hours, avoiding boiling.

  4. After 30 minutes, add the carrots, turnip, onion, and celery.

  5. Season with salt and pepper just before serving.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it cooks slowly in water.
Scotch barley
Releases starch as it simmers, thickening the broth and giving it a soft body.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth as they soften.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly sweet flavour and soft texture to the broth.
Onion
Contributes savoury depth and aroma as it cooks into the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the broth at a gentle simmer. Boiling makes the liquid cloudy and can toughen the meat, while a gentle simmer extracts flavour slowly and keeps the broth clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More mutton broth recipes

Scotch 33with Chops 5Jelly 3with Roots 3 See all 391 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipes