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Plain Mutton Broth

A simple broth made from mutton neck, onions, carrot, turnip, thyme, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Plain Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the scrag of the neck of mutton into thin chops.

Make the broth

  1. Place the mutton in a stew pan with ½ cup of water, onions, carrot, turnip, thyme, and parsley.

  2. Bring to a boil until the water evaporates.

  3. Add cold water to the stew pan and skim off any scum that rises.

  4. Once boiling, remove from heat and let it simmer slowly.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Provides the meat and bones that give the broth its body and rich flavor.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Turnip
Contributes mild, earthy sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated proteins and fat that rise as the liquid heats. Skimming them as they form keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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