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Mutton Broth

A clear broth made by simmering mutton with onions, turnips, carrots, celery, parsley, and salt.

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

Prepare the mutton

  1. Clean the mutton by removing discolored pieces and clotted blood.

  2. Soak the mutton in lukewarm water for 10 minutes, then wash it well.

Make the broth

  1. Place the mutton in a pot with 5 pints of cold water and bring to a simmer.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises until no more appears.

  3. Add onions, turnips, carrots, celery, parsley, and salt.

  4. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  5. Strain the broth through a fine sieve and skim off the fat.

Serve

  1. Serve the broth hot, with the meat and carrots on the side.

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. Carrot + celerytop 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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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 flavor and gelatin that give the broth body as it simmers.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the broth as they cook.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the simmering liquid.
Carrots
Add subtle sweetness and color to the broth, and are served alongside.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, so skim until nothing more rises.

Swap the onion

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

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

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