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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from lean mutton, turnips, carrot, onions, parsley, corn starch, water, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into strips.

  2. Slice the vegetables.

Make the broth

  1. Boil the meat and vegetables in the water for 2.5 hours, reducing the water by one-third.

  2. Strain the broth, removing the meat.

  3. Mash the vegetables to a pulp.

  4. Cool the broth.

  5. Skim off the fat.

  6. Season to taste.

Thicken and serve

  1. Return the broth to the heat.

  2. Stir in the corn starch mixed with water.

  3. Pour the thickened broth into a colander.

  4. Add the boiling hot milk. Stir well.

  5. Serve.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together794 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meaty flavour, and its connective tissue softens into gelatin that gives the broth body.
Turnips
Mashed into the broth, they add body, mild sweetness and earthy flavour.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour to the broth while it simmers.
Onions
Contribute savoury aroma and sweetness as they cook into the broth.
Corn starch
Swells in hot liquid and thickens the broth into a silky consistency.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the corn starch. Starch clumps if added dry or unmixed, so it must be blended with water first and stirred into hot broth. It thickens only as the starch granules swell with heat, so the broth should be kept hot and stirred until it visibly thickens.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, turnip, carrot, parsley, corn, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, turnip, carrot, parsley, corn, milk. 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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