Name: Scotch Mutton Broth
Ingredients: 3 quarts water; scrag of mutton; best end of mutton (cut into cutlets with 2 bones each); carrots (cut into 2 or 3 pieces); turnips (cut into 2 or 3 pieces); onions (cut into 2 or 3 pieces); barley; coarse sea salt (to taste); chopped parsley (for garnish)

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 ↓

Scotch Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

Combine the scrag of mutton and 3 quarts of water in a stewpan, bring to a boil and skim the surface.
Reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 hours.
Trim excess fat from the mutton cutlets and add them to the broth.
Skim the surface when the meat boils and every 10 minutes thereafter.

Add vegetables and barley

Add the carrots, turnips, and onions to the soup, ensuring they cook thoroughly.
Stir in the barley and add coarse sea salt to taste.
Let everything stew together for 3.5 hours.
About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the chopped parsley.

Serve

Serve the soup in a tureen with small pieces of the scrag meat.
Serve the remaining mutton on a separate dish with whole boiled turnips.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together629 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,842 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 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: Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Barley: Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a soft, starchy texture.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth.
Turnips: Add mild sweetness and soften into the broth as they cook.
Onions: Add savoury depth and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface. Mutton releases foam and fat as it heats. Skimming it regularly keeps the broth clear and stops it tasting greasy.

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

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