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Scotch Mutton Broth

A broth made with mutton stock and diced onions, carrots, potatoes, and turnip.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine mutton stock, diced onions, carrots, potatoes, and turnip.

  2. Simmer until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Thicken the broth as desired and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton stock
Forms the savory liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften during simmering.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and body while softening in the broth.
Potatoes
Soften and release starch, helping to slightly thicken the broth.
Turnip
Adds a mildly sweet, earthy flavor and firm texture to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the vegetables are tender. Gentle simmering softens dense root vegetables evenly. Boiling vigorously can break them apart and cloud the broth, so the vegetables should be checked for tenderness rather than timed by rapid cooking.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, carrot, turnip. 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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