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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, water, salt, pepper, turnip, onion, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Turnip and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,585 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Break the bones and cut the meat into small pieces.

  2. Cover the meat and bones with cold water and heat slowly.

  3. Add salt, pepper, turnip, and onion if using.

  4. Simmer until the meat is in shreds.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the broth and let it cool, then remove the fat.

  2. Bring the broth to a boil and add the soaked rice.

  3. Simmer until the rice is cooked and 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. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + ricetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton meat and bones
Release flavor and gelatin into the broth as they simmer slowly in water.
Rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and body to the broth as it softens.

The step that matters

Strain and chill to remove the fat. Fat floats on the surface of cooled broth and would make it greasy if left in. Letting it cool and skimming it off before reheating gives a cleaner, lighter result.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, meat, pepper, turnip, rice):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, meat, pepper, turnip, rice. 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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