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Scotch Broth

A hearty mutton broth with rice and diced vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat from the mutton broth and pour it into a saucepan.

  2. Wash the rice and add it to the broth along with the diced vegetables.

Cook and serve

  1. Simmer the mixture slowly without a lid for one hour.

  2. Add salt to taste and serve in a tureen.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Rice + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Thickens the broth as its starch softens during the long simmer.
Mutton broth
Forms the liquid base that carries all the flavour of the soup.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body as it softens in the broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and substance as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly without a lid for one hour. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and lets the rice and vegetables soften evenly. A rolling boil can make the rice break down and cloud the liquid.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, rice, carrot, celery):

  1. Turnipthe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Parsnipfits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, carrot, celery. 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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