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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made by simmering mutton, barley, onion, and turnips in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

Why it works: Barley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Place the mutton in a large basin, cover with cold water, and add a little salt.

  2. Let it sit for 1 hour to remove the blood.

Simmer the broth

  1. Transfer the mutton to a stewpan and add 2 quarts of water, the Scotch barley (or rice or oatmeal), and the onion.

  2. Bring the mixture to a slow boil, skim off any foam, and add the quartered turnips.

  3. Simmer for 2 hours, then season with salt and strain into a tureen.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, optionally garnished with chopped parsley.

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. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Barley + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together630 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton scrag
Supplies the meat and bones that give the broth its rich, savoury flavour.
Scotch barley
Releases starch during simmering, thickening the broth and giving it body.
Turnips
Contribute sweetness and a mild earthy flavour as they cook into the broth.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam rising during the slow boil carries impurities and proteins that would make the broth cloudy and off-tasting if left in. Skimming keeps the broth clear and clean.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, onion, turnip):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

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