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Mutton and Broth, with Roots

A mutton broth simmered with onions, celery, thyme, parsley, carrots, turnips, and additional onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Mutton and Broth, with Roots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the neck of mutton.

  2. Place the trimmings in a stew pan with onions, celery, thyme, and parsley.

  3. Add ½ cup of water.

  4. Simmer on low heat without letting it catch on the bottom.

  5. Once the liquid has drawn down, add 2 quarts of good stock.

Cook the broth

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  2. After boiling, reduce heat.

  3. Let it simmer, skimming off scum as it rises.

  4. Chop the mutton into pieces.

  5. Scoop carrots and add them to the stew pan.

  6. Simmer for about 1 hour.

  7. Add another ½ pint of stock.

  8. Add turnips.

  9. Add onions.

  10. Let it simmer gently until the liquid is nearly reduced.

Finish

  1. Strain off the broth.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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 neck
Gives the broth its meaty flavour, and its connective tissue turns to gelatin for body.
Good stock
Forms the liquid base that gives the broth its volume and savoury depth.
Onions
Add savoury depth and a background sweetness as they soften in the simmering liquid.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body to the broth as they simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer on low heat without letting it catch on the bottom. Solids sitting on the base of the pan can scorch at high heat, leaving burnt flavours that spread through the whole broth. A gentle simmer and an occasional stir keep the broth clean and clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, celery, thyme, parsley, 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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