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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton, water, vegetables, and seasonings, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Mutton Broth

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

  1. Add mutton and water to a large pot.

  2. Include onions, celery, turnips, carrots, parsley, pearl barley, salt, sugar, and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.

Strain and chill

  1. Strain the broth and cut the meat into pieces the size of a filbert.

  2. Let the broth cool completely and remove any grease.

Reheat and serve

  1. Reheat the broth and add the meat, diced carrots, and sliced onions.

  2. Season with salt and serve hot.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 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
Provides the meat and rich flavour that defines the broth.
Pearl barley
Releases starch as it cooks, slightly thickening and body-building the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy aroma as they simmer.
Onions
Build savoury depth and aroma as they cook into the broth.

The step that matters

Let the broth cool completely and remove any grease. Fat that is still liquid floats on top and makes the broth greasy. Once chilled, the fat solidifies on the surface and can be lifted off cleanly, leaving a lighter broth.

Swap the onion

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

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

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