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Scotch Broth

A hearty soup made with barley, beef or mutton, vegetables, and seasonings, simmered for several hours.

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

Why it works: Leek and turnip 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 Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Start the broth

  1. Combine 4 ounces of pearl barley with 6 quarts of salt water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam.

  2. Add salt beef or brisket, a marrow bone or fowl, and 2 pounds of lean beef or mutton.

  3. Add leeks, cabbages, or savoys, or use turnips, onions, and grated carrots if preferred.

  4. Boil for 4 to 5 hours.

  5. If using a fowl, add it just before serving.

Second method

  1. Take chops from a neck of mutton and cut the remainder into small pieces.

  2. Stew the mutton pieces all day.

  3. Boil 1 pint of Scotch barley until tender, then strain.

  4. Chop 2 large onions and 2 turnips finely, then combine with the barley and mutton in a stewpan.

Finish

  1. Strain the broth into the stewpan, boil for 1.5 hours, skim well, and season with salt and black pepper.

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. Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Pearl barley
Its starch thickens the broth and gives it a soft, hearty body as it cooks.
Lean beef or mutton
Simmering releases flavor and gelatin from the meat, enriching the broth.
Leeks, cabbages, or savoys
Softened in the broth, they add mild sweetness and vegetable flavor.
Turnips
Cooked slowly, they add gentle sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the fowl just before serving. Poultry cooks far faster than beef or mutton. Boiling it for hours toughens the meat and dries it out, so it is added late to stay tender.

“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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