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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, vegetables, and optional pearl barley, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place mutton in a large pot and cover with water.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Chop turnips, celery, carrots, and onion; add to the pot.

  4. If desired, add pearl barley.

  5. Simmer over low heat for 4 to 5 hours.

  6. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface.

Serve

  1. Toast stale bread and cut into small pieces.

  2. Place the toasted bread at the bottom of a soup tureen.

  3. Pour the broth through a colander into the tureen.

  4. Serve the vegetables separately.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meaty flavor and richness that forms the body of the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth as they cook.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the broth as they soften.
Pearl barley
Thickens the broth slightly and adds a chewy texture.

The step that matters

Skimming off the fat. Fat rendered from the mutton rises to the surface during simmering. Removing it keeps the broth clean-tasting and prevents it from feeling greasy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, turnip, celery, carrot, clove, barley. 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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