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Soup

Scotch Broth

A hearty soup of mutton or beef, barley, cabbage, and root vegetables, simmered with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Scald the barley and place it in a pot with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour.

Make the broth

  1. Dice carrot, turnip, and onion, and shred cabbage finely.

  2. Add the prepared vegetables and seasoning to the broth.

  3. Cook steadily for 2 hours.

  4. Skim off any excess fat.

  5. If serving the meat, add it to the boiling broth 1.5 hours before serving, adjusting time based on weight.

Serve

  1. Place chopped parsley in a serving tureen and pour the broth over it.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Barley + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Pearl barley
Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as its starch releases during simmering.
Neck or shoulder of mutton or beef
Adds rich meaty flavour and gelatin to the broth as it simmers slowly.
Cabbage
Adds body and a mild sweetness to the broth as it cooks down.
Leek
Contributes a mild onion-like aroma and sweetness to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer steadily rather than boiling hard. A steady simmer keeps the meat tender and the broth clear. Vigorous boiling toughens meat proteins and breaks up the vegetables and barley, making the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, cabbage, barley, leek, carrot, turnip, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, cabbage, barley, leek, carrot, turnip, pepper. 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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