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Scotch Mutton Broth

A hearty broth made with mutton, barley, vegetables, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scotch Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the barley

  1. Wash the barley.

  2. Boil the barley in plenty of water for about 2 hours.

  3. Drain the barley and set it aside.

Make the broth

  1. Cut the carrot, turnip, onion, and celery into small dice.

  2. Cook the diced vegetables in the broth.

  3. Add the barley, diced mutton, and chopped parsley to the broth last.

  4. Serve slightly thickened, if desired.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together630 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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

Pearl barley
Swells as it cooks, adding body and a soft, thickening texture to the broth.
Mutton
Provides rich meaty flavour and tender bite in the finished broth.
Mixed vegetables
Release sweetness and aroma into the broth as they simmer, adding body and flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the barley separately before adding it. Pearl barley needs a long simmer to soften fully. Adding it raw would leave it hard and could cloud the broth with excess starch, so it is cooked first and drained.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, turnip, 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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