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Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with mutton, barley, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Onion and barley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,166 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton trimmings into neat pieces.

  2. Put the mutton, water, onion, salt, and peppercorns into a saucepan.

  3. Wash the barley and soak it while the soup is boiling.

Cook the soup

  1. Boil gently and remove the scum as it rises.

  2. Add the soaked barley after the first hour of boiling.

  3. Let the soup boil for two more hours.

  4. Taste for seasoning and pour into a soup tureen, leaving the meat in the saucepan.

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. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  2. Mutton + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton trimmings
Provide the meat and fat that give the broth its rich, savoury flavour.
Barley
Swells during the long simmer, thickening the broth and adding body to it.
Red onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Removing the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that cloud the broth and can taste bitter. Skimming it during gentle boiling keeps the soup clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley. 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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