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 Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
In a 2-gallon pot, combine the mutton or sheep's heads with soft water.
Bring to a boil and skim the surface well.
Add the barley or rice and boil for 1 hour.
Add the turnips, carrots, and onions, and continue boiling for another 1.5 to 2 hours.
Finish and serve
Half an hour before serving, add the suet dumplings and optional parsley and marigold blossoms.
Serve the meat on a separate dish and the broth, dumplings, and vegetables in a large tureen.
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.
-
Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together629 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,842 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton or sheep's heads
- Provides the meat and rich flavour that the broth is built on.
- Barley or rice
- Thickens the broth as its starch releases during long simmering.
- Turnips
- Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften during simmering.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and colour to the broth as they cook down.
- Onions
- Add savoury depth and aroma to the broth as they simmer.
- Suet
- Melts into the dumplings, adding fat that keeps them tender and moist.
The step that matters
Skim the surface after bringing to a boil. Foam and fat rising from the meat would otherwise cloud the broth and give it a greasy, unclean taste. Skimming early keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, turnip, carrot, onion):
- Celeryfits better
- Parsleythe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Cuminfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, turnip, carrot, onion. 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
You might also like
Carrot Soup134 recipes
Haricot Mutton59 recipes
Mutton Soup56 recipes
Turnip Soup43 recipesThe 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.