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Ayrshire Broth

A hearty veal and barley broth with ham, turnips, onions, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ayrshire Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Put the meat, bones, and soaked barley in a pot with 1 gallon of water.

  2. Stew slowly for 3 hours.

  3. Add the diced, parboiled vegetables.

  4. Cook gently for 1.5 hours.

  5. Strain the broth without pressing.

  6. Pick out the meat and bones, returning them to the pot with 3 pints of broth.

  7. Add 1 quart of cold water.

  8. Cook covered for 1 hour, seasoning well.

Chill and finish

  1. Turn into a jar or bowl.

  2. Cool.

  3. Set on ice for tomorrow's soup.

  4. Skim.

  5. Season.

  6. Heat with the barley and vegetables.

  7. When it begins to boil, pour into a tureen.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Parsley + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together630 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

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and flavour into the broth, giving body and a rich mouthfeel.
Barley
Swells as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a soft, starchy body.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they simmer into the stock.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and soft texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skim and cool the broth before reheating. Fat and impurities rise to the surface as the broth cools and sets. Removing them before reheating keeps the soup clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, ham, turnip, barley, milk):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, ham, turnip, barley, milk. 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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