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Mutton Broth

A clear mutton broth with barley or rice, carrots, turnip, onion, parsley, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Scrape and wash the breast of mutton.

  2. Place it in a soup kettle with 5 quarts of water.

Simmer the broth

  1. Add barley or rice and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours and 30 minutes.

  3. Skim the broth well.

Finish and serve

  1. Add grated carrots, chopped turnip, onion, and parsley.

  2. Boil for an additional 40 minutes.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Carrot + turniptop 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

Breast of mutton
Provides the meat and fat that flavour the broth as it simmers.
Barley or rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly peppery flavour and soft texture to the broth.
Onion
Contributes savoury depth and aroma as it cooks into the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the broth well. Foam and fat rising during the initial boil can make the broth cloudy and greasy. Removing them before adding vegetables keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

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