Name: German Broth, or Winter Hotchpotch
Ingredients: 3 pounds neck of mutton; ½ cup dried green peas, soaked in cold water; 1½ pints carrots, sliced; 1½ pints turnips, sliced; ½ ounce bruised celery seed, tied in muslin; 1 pound mutton chops, cut from the best end of the neck; 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; water (enough to cover the meat)

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

German Broth, or Winter Hotchpotch

Ingredients

3 pounds neck of mutton
½ cup dried green peas, soaked in cold water
1½ pints carrots, sliced
1½ pints turnips, sliced
½ ounce bruised celery seed, tied in muslin
1 pound mutton chops, cut from the best end of the neck
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon pepper
water (enough to cover the meat)

Directions

In a large pot, gently boil the neck of mutton in enough water to cover it for 1.5 hours.
Add the soaked peas, sliced carrots, sliced turnips, and the muslin bag of bruised celery seed.
Add the mutton chops, salt, and pepper, and boil for an additional 30 minutes.
Serve hot.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck: Long gentle simmering breaks down connective tissue, enriching the broth with body and flavour.
Mutton chops: Cooking in the broth adds meaty flavour and tender meat to the finished dish.
Dried green peas: Starch from the peas thickens the broth slightly and adds earthy body.
Carrots: Release natural sweetness into the broth as they cook.
Turnips: Add mild sweetness and soft texture as they simmer in the broth.

Swap the peas

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

Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Chestnutfits about as well
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, celery, pepper, meat. 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.