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 ↓
Fine Strengthening Mutton Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the meat and barley in 2 quarts of water.
Skim off any fat while cooking.
Cook until it can be strained through a fine sieve to the thickness of cream.
Serve warm.
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.
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.
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Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together510 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton or veal
- Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
- Pearl barley
- Its starch thickens the liquid, giving the broth body as it cooks.
The step that matters
Cook until it can be strained to the thickness of cream. Barley starch and meat gelatin thicken the liquid as it simmers. Stop too early and the broth stays thin; cook too long and it becomes overly thick and loses its pourable texture. Skimming fat during cooking keeps the final broth clean-tasting.
“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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