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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from lean mutton, water, bread, mace, and salt.

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

Why it works: Mutton and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fat from the mutton and place the lean meat in a pot with water.

Simmer

  1. Skim the surface as it boils.

  2. Add the piece of bread and the blade of mace.

  3. Cover the pot and let it boil for 30 minutes.

Finish

  1. Pour the broth off carefully without stirring.

  2. Season with salt to taste.

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. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + macetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Mutton + macetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together827 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Loin of mutton
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as the lean meat cooks in water.
Upper crust of bread
Softens as it simmers, adding a little body and thickness to the broth.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the broth.

The step that matters

Pour the broth off carefully without stirring. Stirring would disturb the settled fat and particles, making the broth cloudy and greasy. Lifting it off gently keeps it clearer.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Pepperfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, bread. 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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