Skip to main content
Main

Scotch Potato Soup

A hearty mutton soup with potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbage, onion, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Scotch Potato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Start the broth

  1. Add the mutton and cold water to a large pot. Bring to a boil.

Add the vegetables and simmer

  1. Add the potatoes, grated carrots, and turnips.

  2. Finely chop the cabbage, onion, and parsley, then add to the pot.

  3. Simmer slowly for four hours, skimming the surface often.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and richness as it simmers.
Potatoes
Their starch breaks down during simmering and gives the soup more body.
Cabbage
Softens during the long simmer, adding bulk and a mild sweetness.
Onion
Releases savory aromatics that deepen the flavor of the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the broth.
Turnips
Add a mild, slightly sharp flavor and soft texture.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for four hours, skimming the surface often. A gentle simmer keeps the mutton tender and the broth clear, while a hard boil makes it cloudy. Skimming removes foam and excess fat that would otherwise cloud or grease the soup.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

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

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes