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Mutton and Broth, with Roots

A mutton broth simmered with root vegetables, herbs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mutton and Broth, with Roots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into cutlets.

  2. Place the scrag and trimmings in a stewpan with onions, thyme, parsley, and celery. Add ½ cup of water and simmer without letting it catch.

  3. Add 2 quarts of water, skim, and keep it clear by boiling slowly.

Add the vegetables and finish

  1. In a small soup pot, add the cutlets, ½ cup of water, turnips, carrots, button onions, and celery. Simmer until boiled dry, then fill with strained mutton broth.

  2. Let it boil slowly for 30 minutes, skimming the broth as needed.

  3. If not strong enough, add 1 pint of good stock, season with salt and sugar.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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

Neck of mutton
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they cook.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the broth.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body to the broth.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic background flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the broth clear by simmering slowly. A rolling boil breaks up fat and proteins into the liquid, making it cloudy. Gentle simmering with regular skimming keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Stirring near the bottom also helps prevent scorching.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, thyme, parsley, celery, turnip, carrot, 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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