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Soup

Scotch Broth

A hearty Scottish soup made with beef, barley, root vegetables, cabbage, and optional peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, pour 1 gallon of cold water over 4 pounds of beef.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add ½ cup of coarse barley.

  3. Chop and add ¼ small cabbage, 4 carrots, 2 parsnips, and 4 turnips.

  4. Chop and add 1½ pints of Irish potatoes.

Finish and serve

  1. Cook for at least 4 hours.

  2. About ¾ hour before serving, add 1 finely chopped onion, 1 sprig of parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

  3. For extra flavor, add 1 pint of green peas with the onion and parsley.

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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

Beef
Provides rich meat flavor and body to the broth as it simmers for hours.
Coarse barley
Thickens the broth and adds a chewy texture as its starch releases during cooking.
Irish potatoes
Break down partly during cooking, adding body and thickening the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color while softening in the long simmer.

The step that matters

Add the onion, parsley, and seasoning about ¾ hour before serving. Adding seasoning too early can concentrate as the liquid reduces over hours, while adding it late keeps the flavors fresh and balanced.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, barley, carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato, onion):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato, onion. 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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