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Scotch Mutton Broth

A broth made with mutton neck, carrots, turnips, onions, and Scotch barley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Soak the neck of mutton in water for 1 hour.

  2. Cut off the scrag.

  3. Place the neck in a stew pot with 2 quarts of water.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Skim well.

  6. Simmer for 1.5 hours.

  7. Cut the best end of the mutton into pieces.

  8. Remove some fat.

  9. Add the pieces to the pot.

Make the broth

  1. Skim the broth when the fresh meat boils and every 15 minutes thereafter.

  2. Add the carrots, turnips, and onions to the pot.

  3. Cook the vegetables until tender.

  4. Stir in the Scotch barley.

  5. Let the meat stew for 3 hours.

  6. Season with salt to taste.

  7. Serve all together.

  8. Twenty minutes before serving, add 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.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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 neck
Provides the meat and bones that flavour the broth as they simmer.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the broth as they soften.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture to the broth as they cook.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness to the broth as they cook down.
Scotch barley
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding body.

The step that matters

Skim the broth regularly. Skimming removes the foam and fat that rise as the meat releases proteins and fat. Removing them keeps the broth clear and less greasy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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