Skip to main content
Main

Scotch Broth

A hearty broth made with mutton stock, barley or rice, onion, parsley, and white roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Scotch Broth

Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make stock by boiling down water from cooked mutton until reduced by half, or simmer bones for 8 hours.

  2. Skim off all fat from the stock.

  3. Wash and soak the barley or rice in cold water for 1 hour.

Cook the broth

  1. Bring the stock and minced onion to a rapid boil.

  2. Add the soaked barley (or rice) and simmer for 45 minutes.

  3. Stir in the parsley and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

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

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

  2. Barley + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together630 recipes

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

  3. Barley + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 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

Pearl barley or rice
Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and giving it body.
White roux
Flour and fat cooked together, thickening the broth and adding a smooth body.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma into the stock as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skim off all fat from the stock. Fat left in the stock floats and makes the broth greasy and heavy on the palate. Removing it before the grain goes in keeps the broth clean-tasting and clear.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, 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.

You might also like

Cream of Barley SoupCream of Barley Soup10 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes