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To Make Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, water, mace, and barley or bread, served with dry toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Make Mutton Broth

Why it works: Mutton and barley work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

To Make Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the mutton into small pieces.

  2. Put the mutton into a saucepan and fill it with water.

  3. Set it over the fire and remove the scum as it rises.

Cook and thicken

  1. Add the mace and barley or bread to thicken.

  2. Boil until the mutton breaks into pieces.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the broth through a fine sieve.

  2. Skim off the fat and serve with dry toast.

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 + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Mace + barleytop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  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

Scrag end of a neck of mutton
Provides the meat and bones that flavour the broth and release body as it simmers.
French barley or white bread
Starch that thickens the broth slightly as it cooks.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Removing the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Skimming it early keeps the broth clear and free of bitter, muddy flavours.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley. 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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