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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from boiled mutton neck, barley, turnips, onion, carrots, parsley, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the neck of mutton in water until cooked, then remove the bones.

  2. Skim off any fat from the broth.

Add vegetables and serve

  1. Add sliced vegetables, barley, pepper, and coarse sea salt to the broth.

  2. Simmer for 1 hour until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Serve the broth with any remaining bits of meat in a tureen.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Releases meat flavour and richness into the broth as it cooks in water.
Barley
Releases starch during simmering, giving the broth a slightly thicker body.
Turnips
Soften during simmering, adding mild sweetness and body to the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth of flavour to the broth.
Carrots
Soften during simmering, adding natural sweetness and colour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off any fat from the broth. Fat from the meat floats on the surface of the broth and can make it greasy and cloudy. Removing it before adding vegetables and simmering keeps the broth clear and light on the palate.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

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