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Soup

Mutton Broth

A broth made from mutton, ham, onion, carrot, split peas, parsley, and herbs, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones from the mutton and slice the meat.

  2. In a large pot, combine the mutton, water, minced ham, onion, carrot, split peas, parsley, and any other herbs.

  3. Cook for 3 hours over medium heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the bones and cut the meat into smaller pieces.

  2. Strain the soup through a cloth or sieve, then return the meat to the pot.

  3. Heat the soup thoroughly before serving.

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

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  5. Peas + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat and rich flavour that the broth is built on.
Split peas
Break down during long simmering to thicken the broth and add body.
Minced ham
Adds salty, smoky depth to the savoury base.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aromatic flavour as it softens in the liquid.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmering. Cooking at medium heat for the full 3 hours lets collagen in the mutton break down into gelatin, giving body, while the split peas soften and thicken the liquid. Boiling hard can cloud the broth and toughen the meat.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, onion, carrot, 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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