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Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with mutton neck, vegetables, split peas, and pearl barley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

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 Broth

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut the scrag end off the neck of mutton and divide it into several pieces.

  2. Boil the mutton gently for 2 hours, skimming well.

Make the broth

  1. Add the sliced vegetables, parsley, pepper, salt, split peas, and soaked pearl barley.

  2. Cut the best end of the neck into mutton chops and add them to the pot.

  3. Simmer until all ingredients are tender, skimming again if necessary.

Serve

  1. Serve each plate with a mutton chop, vegetables, barley, and 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.

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

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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 rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Split peas
Break down during simmering to thicken the broth and add body.
Pearl barley
Swells as it cooks, adding chewy texture and further thickening the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour as they soften in the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Skimming removes foam and fat that rise from the meat during simmering, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting. Skim again after adding the vegetables and grains, since they release more impurities.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, onion, turnip, celery, parsley, pepper. 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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