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 ↓
Mutton Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the mutton thoroughly.
Simmer the broth
Add the mutton to a pot with 2 cups of cold water, salt, and barley.
Boil slowly for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender and falls from the bones.
Strain and skim
Strain out the meat and other solids, then cool the broth and skim off the fat.
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.
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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
- Supplies the meaty flavor, and its collagen breaks down into gelatin that gives the broth body.
- Barley
- Releases starch during simmering, adding a little body and a soft, thickened texture to the broth.
The step that matters
Boil slowly. Keeping the pot at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil keeps the broth clearer and lets fat rise cleanly for skimming, while the collagen slowly softens the meat.
“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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