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Scotch Soup

A hearty beef soup with barley, carrots, onions, turnip, and celery, simmered for three hours.

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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cover the beef with cold water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Add the vegetables and soaked barley to the pot.

  3. Simmer for three hours.

  4. Remove the meat before serving.

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.

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. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Ribs of beef
Gives the broth its rich, meaty flavor as it simmers slowly for hours.
Pearled barley
Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as its starch releases during cooking.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as they soften over long simmering.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the broth as it softens.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly peppery sweetness and body to the broth.
Celery
Contributes savory, aromatic flavor to the broth during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam at the start. Foam that forms as the water heats contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Skimming it early keeps the broth clearer and cleaner-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

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