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Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with stock, carrots, turnips, onions, pearl barley, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strain the stock to remove fat.

  2. Cut the onions into rings.

  3. Wash, peel, and chop the carrots and turnips.

Make the broth

  1. Boil the carrots and turnips in the stock for 45 minutes.

  2. Add the barley and simmer for another 45 minutes.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, and serve without pulping.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + barleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl barley
Swells as it simmers, releasing starch that thickens the broth and gives it body.
Carrots
Soften during boiling and add natural sweetness and colour to the broth.
Turnips
Soften during boiling and add a mild, earthy flavour to the broth.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of every other ingredient.

The step that matters

Adding the barley and simmering. Barley settles and can stick to the bottom of the pot and scorch. A gentle simmer with occasional stirring lets it cook evenly and release starch slowly, thickening the broth without burning.

Swap the onion

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

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

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