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Mutton Noodle Soup

A hearty soup made with mutton head, meat, vegetables, herbs, and noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mutton Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine sheep's head, mutton, onions, carrots, herbs, and 4 quarts of water in a soup kettle.

  2. Simmer for 2 hours until the sheep's head is tender and the bones slip out.

  3. Skim the surface, add 3 quarts of cold water, and remove the head after 3 minutes.

  4. Carefully pull out the bones from the head and return them to the kettle.

  5. Add the vegetables and herbs, bring to a slow boil, and cook for 3 more hours.

Strain and season

  1. Remove the meat and bones, season with salt, and store in a stock jar with half the broth.

  2. Rub the vegetables through a sieve into the remaining broth.

  3. Cool and skim the broth, then bring it back to a boil.

Serve

  1. Add the noodles and simmer for 20 minutes 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.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,878 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's head
Releases gelatin and collagen from bones and skin, giving the broth body and a rich mouthfeel.
Mutton scrag
Adds meaty flavour and fat to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they cook down.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body when pressed through the sieve into the broth.
Noodles
Absorb broth and provide a soft, chewy texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, do not boil hard. A slow simmer lets collagen and fat release into the broth while keeping it clear. A hard rolling boil emulsifies fat and cloudies the stock, and can toughen the meat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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