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Soup

Mutton Broth

A clear broth made from mutton neck, vegetables, barley, and parsley.

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

  2. Cut off the fat and place it in a stewpot with 2 quarts of water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim well, and simmer for 1.5 hours.

  4. Cut the best end of the mutton into pieces with 2 bones each, removing some fat.

Make the broth

  1. Add the meat to the pot and skim when it boils, then every 15 minutes.

  2. Add the carrots, turnips, and onions to the pot to cook until tender.

  3. Wet the Scotch barley with cold water and add it to the pot.

  4. Simmer for 3 hours.

  5. Season with salt to taste.

  6. 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.

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 + 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
Long simmering breaks down connective tissue, releasing gelatin and flavor into the broth.
Scotch barley
Starch from the grain thickens the broth as it cooks and softens.
Carrots
Natural sugars add gentle sweetness and body to the broth as they cook.
Turnips
Starchy flesh softens during simmering, adding mild sweetness and body to the broth.
Onions
Cooking softens their sharpness and releases sweet, savory aroma into the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth. Foam and loose fat rise to the surface as the broth boils. Skimming them regularly keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

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.

More mutton broth recipes

Scotch 33with Chops 5Jelly 3with Roots 3 See all 391 →

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