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Scotch Mutton Broth

A hearty broth made from mutton, barley, carrots, turnips, onion, leek, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Mutton Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the mutton into neat pieces and soak in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Put the mutton on the fire and bring to a slow boil, skimming well.

  3. Let it simmer for about 1.5 hours.

  4. Strain the liquid off the meat, allow it to cool, and remove the fat.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the liquid to the pan, add the mutton (if desired), vegetables, barley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Simmer for another 1.5 hours, skim, add the chopped parsley, and serve.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Barley + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton neck
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Barley
Thickens the broth slightly and adds a soft, chewy texture.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture to the finished broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma as it cooks down into the broth.
Leek
Adds a mild, delicate onion-like flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Foam and fat rising during the slow boil can make the broth cloudy and greasy. Skimming early and again before serving keeps it clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, barley, turnip, leek, pepper, 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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