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Mutton Broth

A savory broth made with mutton, vegetables, and optional oatmeal and barley, served hot with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the mutton pieces with the beef stock or water and oatmeal in a stewpot.

  2. Add the turnips, onions, leeks, celery, thyme, and parsley.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Skim off any impurities.

  5. Remove the piece of mutton when nearly done.

  6. Set the removed piece aside.

  7. Continue boiling the remaining ingredients until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Prepare additional diced turnips, leeks, celery, cabbage, and parsley.

  2. Wash the vegetables.

  3. Strain the broth.

  4. Skim off the fat from the broth.

  5. Add the strained broth back to the pot with the mutton and pearl barley.

  6. Season the broth with salt.

  7. Simmer until everything is cooked through.

  8. Serve hot with toasted bread on the side.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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

Mutton
Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin that gives the broth body.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture as they cook down into the broth.
Onions
Build savory depth as they soften and release their sugars during boiling.
Leeks
Contribute a mild, delicate onion flavor and tender body to the broth.
Pearl barley
Thickens the broth slightly and adds a chewy texture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skim off the fat from the broth. Fat that is not removed before serving floats on the surface and makes the broth greasy. Chilling or skimming after straining lets the fat separate and be lifted off cleanly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, turnip, leek, celery, thyme, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, turnip, leek, celery, thyme, parsley. 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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