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Mutton Broth

A hearty mutton broth made with shoulder, rice, potatoes, pepper, salt, and cold water, boiled slowly for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Rice and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 851 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Crack the joints of the mutton but do not cut it up.

  2. Place the mutton in a soup kettle with rice and potatoes, which should be peeled, washed, and cut up.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then cover with cold water.

Cook the broth

  1. Boil slowly for three hours or until the meat is tender but not broken.

  2. Remove the meat but do not strain the broth.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth and meat with drawn butter poured over it.

  2. Skim the broth well while boiling.

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. Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 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

Mutton shoulder
Collagen and marrow from the bones and joints give the broth body and rich flavor.
Potatoes
Their starch dissolves into the liquid and thickens the broth slightly.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, adding a little body to the broth.
Drawn butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness to the broth and meat at serving.

The step that matters

Boil slowly. A gentle simmer lets the meat turn tender while staying intact and keeps the broth clear. A hard boil breaks the meat apart and churns fat and impurities into the liquid, making it cloudy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, 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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