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Invalid Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, turnip, carrot, onion, and rice or semolina.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Invalid Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim off fat and cut the mutton into small pieces.

  2. Place the mutton in a pan with cold water and a pinch of salt. Let it stand for a little if possible.

Simmer the broth

  1. Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, skimming carefully.

  2. Simmer while preparing the vegetables.

  3. Tie the vegetables in muslin and add them to the broth.

  4. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours.

  5. Remove the vegetables and strain the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Reboil the broth.

  2. Sprinkle in the washed rice, sago, or semolina. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Remove all fat and 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.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + ricetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together824 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

Mutton
Provides the meat flavour and rich body as its collagen and fat dissolve into the broth.
Rice, sago, or semolina
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch swells during the final simmer.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers in muslin.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers in muslin.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth to the broth as it simmers in muslin.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture slowly to a boil, skimming carefully. Starting in cold water and heating gradually lets proteins and fats rise to the surface gradually, where they can be skimmed off. Boiling too fast emulsifies them into the broth, making it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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