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Mutton Broth, Quickly Made

A quick mutton broth made by simmering diced chops, bones, onion, herbs, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton Broth, Quickly Made

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove bones and fat from the mutton chops and cut the meat into dice.

  2. Place the diced meat in a stewpan with 1 pint of cold water.

  3. Scrape and break the bones, then add them to the stewpan along with the onion, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Simmer and finish

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil quickly, skim off any foam, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  2. Remove all fat from the broth, which is easier when cooled.

  3. Rewarm the broth by placing the basin in boiling water.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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 gelatin-rich body that gives the broth depth.
Bones
Release collagen and minerals during simmering, adding body and savoury richness to the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury, sweet aromatic depth as it softens in the liquid.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil quickly, then skim and simmer gently. Starting with a quick boil and skimming off the foam removes impurities that would cloud the broth. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid clear, while a hard boil would emulsify fat into it and make the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, thyme, 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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