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Scotch Barley Broth

A hearty broth made with Scotch barley, beef, onions, celery, turnip, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Barley Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the barley in cold water.

  2. In a soup pot, combine the barley and beef, covering with cold water.

Simmer the broth

  1. Bring to a boil, skim the surface, and add the onions.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2 hours.

  3. Skim off the fat, add celery and turnip, and season with salt.

  4. Boil for an additional 1.5 hours.

Serve

  1. Remove the meat, cover to keep warm, and skim the broth before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together571 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Scotch barley
Swells during long simmering, thickening the broth and giving it a chewy body.
Shin or leg of beef
Releases gelatin and flavor into the broth during the long, gentle simmer.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they cook down into the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavor that rounds out the broth.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and body as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the surface and fat. Foam and fat rise as the broth heats and cooks. Skimming them keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, beef, celery, turnip):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, beef, celery, turnip. 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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