Why it works: Mutton and barley work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓
Mutton Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the mutton into thin slices.
Pour the cold water over the mutton and boil for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture to separate the liquid from the meat.
Add barley and finish
If using barley, wash it.
Macerate the barley in boiling water for 1 hour.
Boil the barley with the mutton tea.
Strain the mixture again.
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.
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Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together510 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Provides the meat flavour and richness that the broth is built on.
- Cold water
- Extracts flavour and gelatin from the meat as it heats gently.
- Pearl barley
- Adds body and thickens the broth as its starch softens during cooking.
The step that matters
Pour the cold water over the mutton and boil. Starting with cold water lets the meat release its juices and flavour gradually as it heats. Adding hot water would seal the surface and produce a weaker broth.
“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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