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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, water, rice or barley, seasoned with salt, pepper, celery salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the mutton with a damp cloth and remove all fat.

  2. Combine the mutton and bones with 1 pint of cold water in a kettle and let stand 30 minutes.

Make the broth

  1. Add ½ cup of washed rice or barley and cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Remove the bones and meat, then season the broth with salt, pepper, celery salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Strain the broth and serve hot.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

  4. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  5. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and savoury body as it simmers.
Rice or barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding body.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours. A slow, gentle simmer draws flavour from the mutton and bones without making the broth cloudy or greasy. Boiling hard emulsifies fat into the liquid and toughens the meat.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, pepper, celery. 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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