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Soup

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

Prepare the stock

  1. Skim all fat off the water from boiled mutton.

  2. Boil the remaining bones in the water for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the bones but leave any bits of meat in the broth.

Simmer the broth

  1. Add sliced vegetables, barley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Simmer for 1 hour.

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

Water from boiled neck of mutton
Carries the meat flavor and gives the broth its base.
Barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving it body.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim all fat off the water. Fat rises to the surface and, if left in, makes the broth greasy and cloudy. Removing it first gives a cleaner, lighter broth before the vegetables and barley go in.

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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