Name: Mutton or Lamb Broth
Ingredients: water from boiled leg of mutton or lamb; 1 turnip, finely chopped; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 carrot, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons minced parsley; 1 tablespoon rice; pieces of neck, ribs, or shank (optional)

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 ↓

Mutton or Lamb Broth

Ingredients

water from boiled leg of mutton or lamb
1 turnip, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 tablespoon rice
pieces of neck, ribs, or shank (optional)

Directions

Prepare

Remove fat from the water taken from the previous day's boiled leg of mutton or lamb.
Combine the water, turnip, onion, carrot, and optional meat pieces in a pot.

Cook

Bring the mixture to a boil.
Cook for two hours.
Add minced parsley and rice.
Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,842 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Turnip: Adds body and a mild sweetness as it softens into the broth.
Onion: Contributes savory depth and sweetness as it cooks down in the liquid.
Carrot: Adds subtle sweetness and color to the broth.
Rice: Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.

The step that matters

Removing the fat. Fat from the cooked meat water floats on top and can make the broth greasy and heavy on the palate. Skimming it off before combining the ingredients gives a cleaner, lighter result.

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

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

More mutton broth recipes

Scotch 33 with Chops 5 Jelly 3 with Roots 3 See all 391 →

Carrot Soup134 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Haricot Mutton59 recipes

Mutton Soup56 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Mutton or Lamb Broth