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Barley Broth, Scotch

A hearty mutton and barley soup with vegetables and green peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek 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 ↓

Barley Broth, Scotch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the fat of the chops from the mutton and set aside.

  2. Place the remaining mutton in a large pot with 4 quarts of cold water.

Simmer the broth

  1. Add ½ pound of Scotch barley and sufficient coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Skim the broth, then add the grated carrot, diced carrot, turnip, leeks, and onion.

  4. Continue to boil for another hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the reserved chops and 4 pints of green peas, then simmer for an additional hour.

  2. Stir in chopped parsley just before serving.

  3. Remove the bones and serve in a tureen.

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

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

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

Mutton neck
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Scotch barley
Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering.
Leeks and onion
Build a sweet, savoury aromatic base for the broth.
Green peas
Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook in the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Skimming removes foam and fat that rise during the first simmer, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting before the vegetables go in.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, carrot, turnip, leek, onion, parsley. 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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