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Scotch Barley Broth

A barley broth made with barley, water, beef or mutton, carrots, and turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the barley and water.

  2. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Add the beef or mutton, carrots, and turnips.

  4. Continue to simmer until the meat is tender and the vegetables are cooked.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tea + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

  4. Beef + turniptop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Tea + carrottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together49 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

Pot or pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth and gives the soup body and a chewy texture.
Lean beef or neck of mutton
Provides the main meat flavour and, as it cooks slowly, savoury depth to the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and colour, and soften during simmering to become tender.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly peppery flavour and soften during simmering to become tender.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tea, beef, carrot):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tea, beef, carrot. 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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