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Dundee Broth

A hearty mutton broth with barley, vegetables, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Dundee Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine mutton, bones, and herbs with 4 quarts of cold water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and let it simmer undisturbed for 4 hours.

  3. Once the soup has cooled, skim off the fat carefully and return it to the heat.

  4. Season the soup with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, and skim again.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Peel and dice the vegetables.

  2. Boil the vegetables in just enough water to cover until tender.

  3. Drain the vegetables and discard the water.

  4. Cover the vegetables with cold water and a little salt, and let them sit.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the drained vegetables to the soup without the water they were soaking in.

  2. Soak the barley in warm water just enough to cover it.

  3. Add the soaked barley and its water to the soup and let everything simmer together for 1 hour.

  4. Serve the vegetables in the soup.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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
Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Cracked bones
Release gelatin and marrow flavour into the water, adding body to the broth.
Barley
Swells as it cooks, thickening the soup and giving it a chewy texture.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture to the soup.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat. Fat that is not removed stays on the surface and makes the broth greasy. Skimming after cooling lets the fat solidify so it lifts off cleanly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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