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Soup

Scotch Broth

A hearty soup of mutton, barley, carrots, turnips, onions, cabbage, parsley, pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the mutton and water.

  2. Add the pearl barley, sliced carrots, sliced turnips, chopped onions, grated carrots, chopped cabbage, and parsley.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 3.5 hours.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the rich meat flavor and gelatin that give the broth body.
Pearl barley
Releases starch as it simmers, thickening the broth and adding chew.
Carrots
Add sweetness and color, and soften into the broth during the long simmer.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and soften to a tender texture as they cook.
Onions
Build savory depth as they break down into the broth.

The step that matters

Bring to a gentle boil, then simmer. A rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and toughens the meat, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear and tender over the long cook.

Swap the onion

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

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

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